West Midlands Euros
The West Midlands region covers Herefordshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and the West Midlands Metropolitan councils. It currently returns 7 MEPs, but this will reduce to 6 at the next election, notionally reducing the number of Conservative seats by 1. Had the Lisbon treaty come into force before the election the number of UK MEPs would have increased by one, which would have been allocated to the West Midlands.
The region returned three Conservatives, two Labour, one Liberal Democrat and one UKIP MEP in 2004.
Sitting MEPs and 2004 Results
| 1. |  |
Philip Bushill-Matthews (Conservative) | 392,937 (27.3%) | (Will stand down at next election) |
| 2. |  |
Michael Cashman (Labour) | 336,613 (23.4%) | |
| 3. |  |
Mike Nattrass (UKIP) | 251,366 (17.5%) | |
| 4. |  |
Liz Lynne (Lib Dem) | 197,479 (13.7%) | |
| 5. |  |
Philip Bradbourn (Conservative) | (196,469) | |
| 6. |  |
Neena Gill (Labour) | (168,307) | |
| 7. |  |
Malcolm Harbour (Conservative) | (130,979) | |
| -. | BNP | 107,794 (7.5%) | ||
| -. | Green | 73,991 (5.2%) | ||
| -. | Respect | 34,704 (2.4%) | ||
| -. | Pensioners Party | 33,501 (2.3%) | ||
| -. | Common Good | 8,650 (0.6%) |
2009 Candidates
| 1. | Michael Cashman Sitting MEP. Born 1950, London. Former actor, best known for playing Colin Russell in Eastenders. MEP for West Midlands since 1999. |
| 2. | Neena Gill Sitting MEP. Born 1956, Ludhiana. Educated at Liverpool Polytechnic. Prior to her election was chief executive of a social housing company. MEP for West Midlands since 1999. |
| 3. |  Claire Edwards Rugby councillor. |
| 4. |  Anthony Painter Journalist and author. |
| 5. | Victoria Quinn |
| 6. | Mohammed Nazir |
| 1. | Philip Charles Bradbourn Sitting MEP. Born 1951, Tipton. Educated at Tipton Grammar and Worcester College. Contested Wolverhampton South East 1992. Contested County Durham in 1994 European elections. MEP for the West Midlands since 1999. Awarded the OBE in 1994 for public and political service. |
| 2. | Malcolm Harbour Sitting MEP. Born 1947, Woking. Educated at Bedford School and Cambridge University. Formerly worked as a engineer, executive and consultant in the motor industry. Contested Birmingham East in 1989 European election. MEP for the West Midlands since 1999. |
| 3. |  Anthea McIntyre Educated at Queens College, Harley Street. Partner in an information management consultancy. Hereford and Worcester county councillor 1977-1985, Herefordshire councillor since 2006. Contested Warley West 1983, Redditch 1997, Shrewsbury and Atcham 2001. |
| 4. |  Michael Burnett Educated at Warwick University. Chartered accountant. Contested West Midlands in 1999 and 2004 European elections. |
| 5. |  Mark Spelman Businessman. Married to Caroline Spelman, the MP for Meriden. |
| 6. | Dan Dalton |
| 1. | Liz Lynne Sitting MEP. Born 1948, Woking. Educated at Dorking County Grammar. Former actress and speech consultant. MP for Rochdale 1992-1997. MEP for the West Midlands since 1999. |
| 2. |  Phil Bennion Born Tamworth. Educated at Queen Elizabeth Grammar and Aberdeen University. Farmer and former lecturer. Lichfield councillor. Contested Lichfield 1997, 2001, Tamworth 2005. |
| 3. |  Susan Juned Born 1948. Educated at Birmingham University. Local government liasion, formerly worked as a scientist. Leader of Stratford on Avon council 1997-2000. Former Warwickshire councillor. Contested Stratford on Avon 1997, 2001, 2005. |
| 4. | Stephen Barber |
| 5. |  William Powell Teacher and farmer. Powys county councillor. |
| 6. |  Jonathan Bramall Educated at the University of Essex. Contested Dudley South 2005. |
| 1. | Mike Nattrass Sitting MEP. Born 1945, Leeds. Chartered surveyer. UKIP MEP for the West Midlands Region since 2004. Contested Dudley West by-election 1994 for the New Britain Party. Contested Solihull 1997 for the Referendum party. Contested Sutton Coldfield 2001, Stone 2005, Crewe and Nantwich by-election 2008. Deputy leader of UKIP 2002-2006. |
| 2. |  Nikki Sinclaire Former UKIP party secretary. Contested Medway 2001, Halesowen and Rowley Regis 2005. Will contest Solihull at next election. |
| 3. |  Gillian Seymour |
| 4. |  Rustie Lee Born Jamacia. Celebrity TV chef. Contested Wyre Forest 2005. |
| 5. |  Malcolm Hurst Contested Staffordshire South 2005. |
| 6. | Jonathan Oakton Born 1958. Sales Director. Contested Birmingham Edgbaston 1997 for the Referendum Party, West Midlands Region in European Elections 1999, West Bromwich West by-election 2000 for UKIP |
| 1. |  Felicity Norman Part time teacher. Former Leominster councillor. Contested Leominster 2005. |
| 2. |  Peter Tinsley Management consultant. |
| 3. |  Chris Williams Educated at Oxford University. |
| 4. |  Ian Davidson Educated at Cambridge University. Research fellow and former teacher. |
| 5. |  Vicky Dunn |
| 6. |  Dave Wall Born Birmingham. |
| 1. |  Simon Darby.Born 1964, West Bromwich. Dudley councillor 2003-2004. Contested West Midlands in 2004 European elections. Contested Dudley North 1997 for the National Democrats, 2001, 2005 for the BNP. Deputy leader of the BNP. |
| 2. |  Alby Walker.Self employed joiner. Stoke on Trent councillor. |
| 3. |  Chris Turner.Ex-serviceman. |
| 4. |  Ken Griffiths. Transport manager. |
| 5. |  Elly Walker. Stoke on Trent councillor. |
| 6. |  Russell Green. Sandwell councillor. |
| 1. |  Dave Nellist Born 1952, Cleveland. Former Labour MP for Coventry South East between 1983 and 1992, he was deselected for the 1992 for his support of Militant. Contested Coventry South East 1992 as Independent Labour, Coventry South 1997 for the Socialist Party, Coventry North East 2001 for the Socialist Alliance, 2005 for the Socialist Party. Coventry councillor. |
| 2. | Dyal Singh Bagi President of the IWA GB |
| 3. |  Malcolm Gribbins Retired teacher |
| 4. | Joanne Stevenson General Secretary of the Young Communist League |
| 5. | Pete McLaren National Secretary of the Socialist Alliance |
| 6. | Andy Chaffer |
| 1. |  John Tyrrell Former Birmingham councillor for Labour. |
| 2. | Satbir Johal Contested West Bromwich East 2001. Contested West Midlands 1999 European elections. |
| 3. | Rajinder Claire Contested Perry Barr 2005. |
| 4. | Bhagwant Singh |
| 5. | Surinder Virdee Contested Birmingham Ladywood 2001. |
| 6. | Shangara Bhatoe |
| 1. | Geoffrey Coady Consultant. Former member of the Labour party. |
| 2. Graham Burton | 3. Jeremy Spencer |
| 4. Daid Bennett | 5. Colin Thompson |
| 1. | David Booth |
| 2. Samuel Nelson | 3. Ablodun Akiwumi |
| 4. Yeside Oguntoye | 5. Ade Raji |
| 6. Maxine Hargreaves |
| 1. |  David Ford Lane |
| 2. Frederick Bishop | 3. John Lane |
| 4. Graham Walker | 5. Michael Ellis |
| 6. Kim Elizabeth |
| 1. | Jimmy Millard |
| 2. Bridget Rose | 3. Zigi Davenport |
| 4. Andrew Bebbington | 5. David Black |
| 6. Matthew Lingard |
NB - Candidates lists are provisional, based on candidates declared before the campaign. They will be updated to reflect the final list of candidates as soon as possible following the close of nominations.
They technically didnt lose a seat, because if there had been six seats in 2004 the Tories would only have won two then. If the seventh seat is awarded to this region it will go to the Conservatives so there is no change to their position really. The UKIP gain comes purely at Labour’s expense. There is some discussion that the seventh seat may go to London instead, although at the time the allocations were made the West Midlands qualified for the additional seat. It seems rather dubious to reallocate after the election. If London gets the extra seat it would go to Labour.
BNP had a disappointing night in both Midlands’ regions. I haven’t seen most of the detailed results yet but they must have had underwhelming results in places like Stoke-on-Trent and Sandwell. Interesting because they seemed to have done quite well in places like Nuneaton in the county council elections.
They did not do as well in Nuneaton as they had last year – for example they would have won Camp Hill which is identical to the borough ward if the results from 2008 had been repeated. They have also seen their support in Sandwell and Dudley fall back quite sharply compared with a few years ago.
English Democrats did very good for a first outing in the region. 32,000 votes and in the Telford and Wrekin area there would be another 25,000 next time.