| Somerset and North Devon | |
|---|---|
| European Parliament constituency | |
 European Parliament logo | |
| Member state | United Kingdom |
| Created | 1994 |
| Dissolved | 1999 |
| MEPs | 1 |
| Sources | |
Somerset and North Devon was a European Parliament constituency covering all of Somerset in England, plus northern Devon and south-western Avon. With Cornwall and West Plymouth, it was one of the first two seats to elect a Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament.
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.
It consisted of the Westminster Parliament constituencies (on their 1983 boundaries) of Bridgwater, North Devon, Somerton and Frome, Taunton, Wells, Weston-super-Mare, and Yeovil.[1]
The constituency replaced most of Somerset and West Dorset and parts of Devon. It became part of the much larger South West England constituency in 1999.
Members of the European Parliament
| Elected | Name | Party | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Graham Watson | Liberal Democrats | |
| 1999 | Constituency abolished: see South West England | ||
Results
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Liberal Democrats | Graham Watson | 106,187 | 43.6 | ||
| Conservative | Margaret Daly | 83,678 | 34.3 | ||
| Labour | John Pilgrim | 34,540 | 14.2 | ||
| Green | David Taylor | 10,870 | 4.5 | ||
| New Britain | Graham Livings | 7,165 | 2.9 | ||
| Natural Law | Mark Lucas | 1,200 | 0.5 | ||
| Majority | 22,509 | 9.3 | |||
| Turnout | 243,640 | 47.1 | |||
| Liberal Democrats win (new seat) | |||||