1994 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom

The European Parliament Election, 1994 was the fourth European election to be held in the United Kingdom. It was held on 9 June, though, as usual, the ballots were not counted until the evening of 12 June. The electoral system was, for the final European election, first past the post in England, Scotland and Wales and single transferable vote in Northern Ireland. This was the first election with 87 MEPs, the European Parliamentary Elections Act 1993 increased the number of seats for the UK from 81. For the first time, the UK did not have the lowest turnout in Europe. Turnout was lower in the Netherlands and Portugal.

1994 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom

9 June 1994
87 seats to the European Parliament
Turnout	36.4% ()
First party Second party Third party   Leader Margaret Beckett (Acting) John Major Paddy Ashdown Party Labour Conservative Liberal Democrats Alliance PES EPP ELDR Leader since 12 May 1994 28 November 1990 16 July 1988 Last election 45 seats, 38.7% 32 seats, 33.7% 0 seats, 5.9% Seats won 62 18 2 Seat change 17 13 2 Popular vote 6,753,881 4,274,122 2,557,887 Percentage 42.6% 26.8% 16.1% Swing 3.9% 6.7% 10.2%
Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results.
Leader of Largest Party before election Margaret Beckett Labour Subsequent Leader of Largest Party Margaret Beckett Labour

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This was the first European election contested by the recently formed UK Independence Party and the first European election in which the Liberal Democrats won seats. The Green Party lost more than three-quarters of the votes they secured in the previous election. The Conservatives lost 14 seats, taking their number of seats down to 18, which was 42 fewer seats than in the 1979 election, the year they defeated the Labour Party in the 1979 General Election. This reflected the general unpopularity of the Major government at the time.

Labour was under the interim leadership of Margaret Beckett following the sudden death of leader John Smith the previous month.