Cornwall and Plymouth (European Parliament constituency)

Cornwall and Plymouth European Parliament constituency
European Parliament logo
Created	1979
Dissolved	1994
MEP(s)	1
Member State	United Kingdom
Source(s)	[1]

Cornwall and Plymouth was a European Parliament constituency covering Cornwall and Plymouth in England.

Prior to its uniform adoption of proportional representation in 1999, the United Kingdom used first-past-the-post for the European elections in England, Scotland and Wales. The European Parliament constituencies used under that system were smaller than the later regional constituencies and only had one Member of the European Parliament each.

When it was created in England in 1979, it consisted of the Westminster Parliament constituencies of Bodmin, Falmouth and Camborne, North Cornwall, Plymouth Devonport, Plymouth Drake, Plymouth Sutton, St Ives and Truro. In 1984, Bodmin was replaced by South East Cornwall.^[1]

The constituency was replaced by Cornwall and West Plymouth and a small part of Devon and East Plymouth in 1994, and these seats became part of the much larger South West England constituency in 1999.

Members of the European Parliament

Elected	Name	Party
1979	David Harris		Conservative
1984	Christopher Beazley		Conservative

Results

European Parliament election, 1979: Cornwall and Plymouth[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	David Harris	94,650	55.1	N/A
	Labour	D. Leather	36,681	21.4	N/A
	Liberal	G. H. T. Spring	23,105	13.5	N/A
	Mebyon Kernow	Richard Jenkin	10,205	5.9	N/A
	Ecology	Edward Goldsmith	5,125	3.0	N/A
	United Against the Common Market	A. E. M. Ash	1,834	1.1	N/A
Majority			57,969	33.7	N/A
Turnout				35.0	N/A
	New creation: Conservative gain.		Swing	N/A

European Parliament election, 1984: Cornwall and Plymouth[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Christopher Beazley	81,627	42.5	-12.6
	Social Democrat	Jonathan Marks	63,876	33.3	+19.8
	Labour	John Cosgrove	35,952	18.7	-2.7
	Independent	Anthony Parkyn	5,645	2.9	N/A
	Independent Liberal	Robin Trevallion	2,981	1.6	N/A
	Cornish Nationalist	James Whetter	1,892	1.0	N/A
Majority			17,751	9.2	-24.5
Turnout				37.9	+2.9
	Conservative hold		Swing

European Parliament election, 1989: Cornwall and Plymouth[2]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Christopher Beazley	88,376	38.9	-3.6
	Social and Liberal Democrats	Paul Tyler	68,559	30.2	-3.1
	Labour	Dorothy Kirk	41,446	18.3	-0.4
	Green	Howard Hoptrough	24,581	10.8	N/A
	Mebyon Kernow	Colin Lawry	4,224	1.9	N/A
Majority			19,817	8.7	-0.5
Turnout				41.9	+4.0
	Conservative hold		Swing

Mebyon Kernow

In 2009 Cornish party Mebyon Kernow is campaigning for a dedicated Euro-constituency and MEP for Cornwall. Leader Dick Cole said, "This European election represents a huge democratic deficit for the people of Cornwall. Our distinct needs are ignored in the massive South West constituency and we have been poorly served by MEPs not resident in Cornwall. We consider it a nonsense that the European parliamentary constituency stretches from the Isles of Scilly to Bristol via Gibraltar. We hope voters will support our campaign for proper Cornish representation in Europe including a European Parliamentary constituency for Cornwall."^[3]

References

1. ^ "David Boothroyd's United Kingdom Election Results". http://www.election.demon.co.uk/epbound.html. Retrieved 2008-01-20. 
2. ^ ^{a b c} United Kingdom European Parliamentary Election results 1979-99: England: Part 1
3. ^ Mebyon Kernow campaigns for Cornwall only MEP

External links

• David Boothroyd's United Kingdom Election Results