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Euro Election Results - Merseyside

pingupete | 14.06.2004 11:37 | Anti-racism | Liverpool

Fact figures and comment on Euro election results and the dangers of the far right

Euro Election results on Merseyside including Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, Wirral and St Helens:

Labour 129,577 (33.3%)
Lib Dems 71,460 (18.4%)
Tories 71,125 (18.3%)
UKIP 39,297 (10.1%)
Liberal 23,209 (6.0%)
Greens 21,623 (5.6%)
BNP 18,239 (4.7%)
English Democrats 5,555 (1.4% - lost deposit in region)
Respect (1.1% - lost deposit in region)

Euro Election results in Liverpool:

Labour 38,640 (34.9%)
Lib Dems 27,510 (24.9%)
Tories 10,234 (9.2%)
UKIP 9,159 (8.3%)
Liberal 8,862 (8.0%)
Greens 6,936 (6.3%)
BNP 4,611 (4.2%)
Respect 2,192 (2.0%)
English Democrats 1,347 (1.2%)

Not a promising result for progressive political parties. A far / hard right vote of well over 15% on Merseyside.

Labour still seem to be able to get people to vote for them in the “big” elections in Liverpool despite their ongoing failure to recapture council seats from the Liberal Democrats who must now know they cannot hope to take the safe Labour seats on Merseyside. The Tories don’t do very well, even if you look at the Merseyside figures.

UKIP has come from behind the Greens in 1999 to become the 4th largest party. The Liberal Party have similarly overtaken the Greens. Credit must be given to the Liberal Party for some smart thinking. They changed their logo at the last minute to say “No to the Euro” and seem to have cashed in on some of the vote that otherwise would have gone to UKIP. Last time out they lost their deposit and this time they comfortably saved it.

Despite holding their regional share of the vote steady at 5.6% and increasing their share of the vote in Liverpool and Merseyside, the Greens are disappointed not to match some of their excellent local election results (see other thread). Respect must be bitterly disappointed having failed to save their deposit and the 2.0% figure in Liverpool is one of their best regional results. Only in Preston have they actually performed better than the Greens.

The far right BNP and English Democrats are a serious worry. If their votes had been combined then there was a real chance for Griffin to sneak in. As it is, we have to be thankful to the deep blue sea of UKIP for keeping the BNP out. If UKIP had not had such publicity, a £2 million election budget and Robert Kilroy Silk, right now we would have the BNP elected in our region.

Five years is a long time in politics but the Greens need something to boost them into contention in the NW. Successful results in London and the South East saw Jean Lambert and Caroline Lucas re-elected, but this is only holding steady and we have not made progress this time. Socialists must look long and hard at how the left should organise after failing to hold their deposits anywhere other than London.

pingupete

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