1989 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom

1989 European Parliament election in the United Kingdom

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81 seats to the European Parliament
Turnout	36.4% (3.8%)
First party Second party   Leader Barry Seal Christopher Prout Party Labour Conservative Alliance PES EPP Leader's seat Yorkshire West Shropshire and Stafford Last election 32 seats, 34.8% 45 seats, 38.8% Seats won 45 32 Seat change 13 13 Popular vote 6,153,640 5,331,077 Percentage 38.7% 33.7% Swing 3.9% 5.1%
Colours denote the winning party, as shown in the main table of results.

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UK membership of the European Union (1973–2020)
Accession Treaty of Accession 1972 1972 EC Act 1973 enlargement of the EC
1975 referendum Referendum Act (results)
Treaty amendments Single European Act, 1986 (UK ratification) Maastricht Treaty, 1992 (UK ratification) Treaty of Amsterdam, 1997 (UK ratification) Treaty of Nice, 2001 (UK ratification) Treaty of Lisbon, 2007 (UK ratification) Related: 2011 UK Act on new EU Treaty amendments EU-related British Acts Proposed European Constitution referendum European Union Bill 2004–2005
Members 2019–2020	(2019 election)

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The 1989 European Parliament election, was the third European election to be held in the United Kingdom. It was held on 15 June. The electoral system was First-past-the-post voting in England, Scotland and Wales and Single transferable vote in Northern Ireland. The turnout was again the lowest in Europe.

This election saw the best performance ever by the

The election also saw Labour overtake the Conservatives for the first time in any election since October 1974 and the first time ever in a European election, winning 13 more seats.

Two by-elections to the British Parliament also took place on the same day in the Vauxhall and Glasgow Central constituencies - Labour held both seats.

Party		Votes won[1]	% of vote	Loss/Gain	Seats	% of seats	Loss/Gain
	Labour	6,153,661	38.7	3.9	45	55.6	13
	Conservative	5,356,887	33.7	5.1	32	39.5	13
	Green	2,299,287	14.5	14.0	0
	SLD	944,861	5.9	12.6	0
	SNP	406,686	2.6	1.0	1	1.2
	DUP	160,110	1.0	0.6	1	1.2
	SDLP	136,335	0.9	0.2	1	1.2
	UUP	118,785	0.7	0.4	1	1.2
	Plaid Cymru	115,062	0.7	0.1	0
	SDP	75,886	0.5	New	0
	Sinn Féin	48,914	0.3	0.4	0
	Alliance	27,905	0.2		0
	Independent	12,724	0.1		0
	Ind. Conservative	6,996	0.0		0
	Workers' Party	5,590	0.0	0.1	0
	Labour Representation Group	3,540	0.0	New	0
	Communist	4,420	0.0	New	0
	Monster Raving Loony	4,263	0.0	New	0
	Mebyon Kernow	4,224	0.0	New	0
	Wessex Regionalist	2,332	0.0		0
	International Communist	1,567	0.0	New	0
	National Front	1,471	0.0	New	0
	Humanist	1,349	0.0	New	0
	Labour Party NI	1,274	0.0	New	0
	Socialist (GB)	919	0.0	New	0
	Corrective	707	0.0	New	0
	Communist League	323	0.0	New	0

• Overall (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) turnout: 36% (EU average: 59%)
• Overall votes cast: 15,896,078

Party		Votes won[1]	% of vote	Loss/Gain	Seats	% of seats	Loss/Gain
	Labour	6,153,661	40.1	3.6	45	57.7	13
	Conservative	5,331,098	34.7	6.1	32	41.0	13
	Green	2,292,718	14.9	14.4	0
	SLD	944,861	6.2	13.3	0
	SNP	406,686	2.6	0.9	1	1.3
	Plaid Cymru	115,062	0.7	0.1	0
	SDP	75,886	0.5	New	0
	Independent	12,724	0.1		0
	Ind. Conservative	6,996	0.0		0
	Communist	4,420	0.0	New	0
	Monster Raving Loony	4,263	0.0	New	0
	Mebyon Kernow	4,224	0.0	New	0
	Wessex Regionalist	2,332	0.0		0
	International Communist	1,567	0.0	New	0
	National Front	1,471	0.0	New	0
	Humanist	1,349	0.0	New	0
	Socialist (GB)	919	0.0	New	0
	Corrective	707	0.0	New	0
	Communist League	323	0.0	New	0

Total votes cast: 15,361,267

Total votes cast – 534,811.

• Labour – Neil Kinnock
• Conservative – Margaret Thatcher
• Green – N/A (the Green Party did not have a leader)
• Social and Liberal Democrats – Paddy Ashdown
• Scottish National Party – Gordon Wilson
• Plaid Cymru –
  Dafydd Elis Thomas
• Democratic Unionist Party – Ian Paisley
• Social Democratic and Labour Party – John Hume
• Ulster Unionist Party –
  James Molyneaux

• Elections in the United Kingdom: European elections
• List of members of the European Parliament for the United Kingdom (1989–1994)