Results and turnout at the 2014 European Parliamentary elections

Thirty different parties fielded a total of 119 lists across Great Britain. There were ten individual party candidates in Northern Ireland. 

UKIP topped the poll in Great Britain and won the largest number of seats. A total of seven parties won at least one seat. There was no change in party representation in Northern Ireland. 

The 2014 European Parliament (EP) elections gave nearly 46.5 million registered UK electors the opportunity to vote.

Some 16.55 million votes were counted in the ballot box, making the overall turnout 35.6%. This was nearly a full percentage point increase on the 2009 contests.

Turnout was higher than in 2009 in every country in the UK. In England and Wales the increase was modest; in Scotland and in Northern Ireland it was more considerable.

The proportion of ballots that are rejected at the official count continues to be small. At the 2014 EP contests it was about one in every two hundred votes cast. There is though evidence of the rejection rate being somewhat higher where voters are faced with an additional election operating under a different electoral system (e.g. in areas with combined local elections).

Over 7.23 million postal votes were issued - 15.6% of the total UK electorate. In 12 local authority counting areas, more than 25% of the electorate had a postal vote; in another 14 fewer than 10% did so. 

More than two thirds (69.1%) of those with a postal ballot returned it. In contrast, turnout among those required to vote ‘in person’ was 30.1%. 

The proportion of postal votes rejected or otherwise not included in the count was 4.4%, ranging from a high of 7.3% in Northern Ireland to a low of 2.9% in Scotland.

Postal vote rejection following a mismatch of signature and/or date of birth was much more common than rejection for incomplete information. 

In up to a third of cases of postal vote rejection voters returned their postal voting envelopes but failed to include either the ballot paper itself or the verification statement or both. 

Around 0.6% of electors with a postal vote were granted a waiver to use their date of birth as their sole identifier.

Some 54,500 electors (0.12% of the total electorate) appointed proxies to act on their behalf.

Areas which had local as well as European elections appear to have attracted a greater proportion of their electorate to vote. In particular, turnout was up in local authorities where there were local contests this time but not in 2009.