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Anthea McIntyre set to become Conservative MEP as UK gets 73rd seat in Brussels

By Jonathan Isaby

After changes to various countries' representation in the European Parliament as a result of the Lisbon Treaty, the UK will be allocated one additional seat. In a written statement yesterday, Mark Harper relayed the decision from the Electoral Commission that the additional MEP will be from the West Midlands.

Harper's statement explained:

"Under the terms of the European Parliament (Representation) Act 2003, the Electoral Commission in making this recommendation was obliged to ensure that the ratio of electors to MEPs is as nearly as possible the same in each electoral region... The recommendation is that the extra seat should be allocated to the west midlands electoral region. I am grateful to the Electoral Commission for its work in producing this recommendation which, in its usual way, it has undertaken entirely independently and without regard to the outcome.

"The Government will include the necessary provisions to implement the Electoral Commission’s recommendation in the forthcoming European Union Bill, as indicated in the Minister for Europe’s statement of 13 September 2010... The Bill will also provide that the seat will be filled by reference to the results of the west midlands region at the last European parliamentary elections held on 4 June 2009, as if the extra seat had been available in the west midlands electoral region in those elections."

"Subject to parliamentary approval, the additional UK MEP provided for by the transitional protocol will be elected once the relevant provisions in the European Union Bill have entered into force, and once all EU member states have ratified the transitional protocol. The protocol cannot enter into force, and the additional MEPs provided for by the protocol cannot take up their seats, until all member states have ratified the protocol."

The effect of giving the West Midlands an extra seat is that there will be an additional Conservative MEP, with Anthea McIntyre being the next name on the party's list in the region - although given the process described above, I am not sure preciselty when she can expect to take her seat.

Anthea has a long history of political activism in the West Midlands, having first been elected to Hereford and Worcester Council in 1977 and chaired the European campaign in the region in 1999. She has also been a parliamentary candidate in the region in Warley West (1983), Redditch (1997) and Shrewsbury and Atcham (2001). 

Zehra Zaidi records the exhausting - but successful - final week of the Euro-election campaign in South West England

Zehra Zaidi was one of the Conservative candidates for the European Parliament in South West England at last Thursday's election. She records here her final week on the campaign trail and reflects on the results...

Monday 

The final week of the European and local campaign kicked off on my birthday.  Lots of fantastic birthday wishes left me smiling and on a high, but there was no time for celebrating as I headed off for a busy day of Gloucestershire campaigning.

Much of the day was spent in Stroud. Delivering leaflets in Cam & Dursley with the local PPC Neil Carmichael was a lot of fun.  After one final steep climb in the torching heat, we headed to the Old Spot Pub in Dursley for a quick refreshment.  Afterwards, I had a phone-in radio interview for Bristol University Radio to do in my oven-like car.  We proceeded to Stonehouse to canvas for the superb local candidate, John Jeffreys.  The day ended with birthday cake over my laptop – how many emails can you get in a day?

Tuesday

Traffic problems can seriously frustrate one’s day as I found out today.  To make matters worse, my Tom Tom was playing up.  Luckily for me, I love maps and plotted out alternative routes in the good old fashioned way.

The day began in South Gloucestershire at the majestic Tudor House Conservative Club in beautiful Chipping Sodbury.  Whilst delivering and slightly out of breadth, I got a media call (not easy to take in the heat on a pavement holding bundles of leaflets!).  Many residents were out in their gardens and plenty seemed to want to chat about Europe.  One lady asked me what UKIP actually stood for besides one or two simplistic messages and what their MEPs actually did in Brussels? 

Next stop was Kingswood to help Chris Skidmore, the local PPC.  We had a storming delivery session, getting through more than what had been planned.  Chris has put in a lot of hard work in Kingswood and it is showing – some of his campaigns have really hit the nail and the jobs club has been a great success.  I then made my way to Bristol for the last in a series of public hustings - this time at the Counterslip Baptist Church.

Zehra Zaidi was one of the Conservative candidates for the European Parliament in South West England at last Thursday's election. She records here her final week on the campaign trail and reflects on the results...

Rupert Matthews: An eve-of-poll update on the European campaign in the East Midlands

Rupert Matthews is a freelance historian who has had over 150 books published. He is one of the MEP candidates for the Conservative Party in the East Midlands Region.

It has been a real rollercoaster of a ride these past few weeks on the campaign trail. We got off to a flying start with successful campaign launches in each county and effective campaigning from every association – then everything got overtaken by the whole expenses thing.

I won’t bother rehearsing what has been going on with that as I am sure that most readers of ConservativeHome have been out on the doorstep and know full well the strong feelings of the public. However, it is worth delving a bit below the surface to try to figure out what is going on with voting intentions. I will therefore highlight two incidents from the East Midlands that might give clues as to what may happen tomorrow.

Evan Price: A busy week on the European campaign trail in Wales - although it's hard to escape the issue of MPs' expenses

Evan Price is Number Two on the Conservative Party's list in Wales at next month's European election. Here he records his experiences on the campaign trail around Wales during a week where MPs' expenses has dominated the news agenda.

The Conservative Party has never won the popular vote in Wales. Labour has won it in every year since 1922. The fact we think we might be able to beat them in the elections to the European Parliament on 4th June is testament to the progress we have made in Wales since our wipeout in 1997.

If we do complete that historic win, Gordon Brown will be the first Labour Prime Minister to ‘lose’ Wales. As an incentive to Conservative supporters there is almost nothing more likely to get them going than that prospect. And with the Welsh economy in the doldrums - having gone backwards in the last 10 years - there is very real anger on the streets.

Sadly that anger is, at least in substantial part, directed at MPs' expenses. During the course of the week this issue has grown to dominate the news agenda like no other political story I can remember. The Daily Telegraph’s disclosures reveal a culture that is, including on the doorsteps I’ve visited this week, unacceptable. The purchase of furniture, furnishings, and food and the so-called ‘flipping’ of the choice between properties for their first home, are the things that anger people the most.

Monday

I jumped on the motorbike to meet Dick Wishart in Llangollen. I changed out of my motorcycle gear and we drove to Flint to meet Francis Maude. Then we drove to Holywell to see a factory owned by Kingspan where they make insulated panels for industrial buildings. This being the Delyn constituency, we met Antionette Sandbach, our PPC (pictured). After some discussions about what the company does and how it does it, we toured the factory. Essentially, the company takes sheets of steel and fixes them on either side of a foam to create an insulating board to be used on commercial premises. It is developing all sorts of other ‘green’ solutions for industrial buildings and it was a very interesting tour.

William Hague gets a golden response from the voters of Gibraltar

Mike Dolley is fourth on the Conservative Party list for the South West at next month's European Parliament election - a region which includes Gibraltar. Here he reports back on William Hague's recent campaign visit to Gibraltar.

Just over a week ago I penned my first article on our South West Euro campaign in Gibraltar. I outlined the history of our involvement and I reported on high profile visits to the Rock by Mark Francois and Michael Ancram. I signed off by pledging to report back on the forthcoming visit by Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague.

Anyone who has ever been involved in organising a visit like this knows just what a challenge it presents. Detail is everything and as I learned in the TA, “prior preparation and planning prevents p*** poor performance”. So William’s visit had to be scheduled and reconnoitred in the minutest detail. And Gibraltar takes its politics very seriously – particularly when anticipating a visit by a man they all expect to be Foreign Secretary in David Cameron’s first Government.

When William landed at Gibraltar airport, the photographers were there to catch him, framed against the Rock in that dramatic pose that anybody who has ever landed in Gib will immediately recognise (The runway isn’t the longest in the world so passengers are normally wide awake as they come down the steps from the plane!). We wanted to maximise use of his time so from the airport he was whisked straight to the Garrison Library where nearly 100 local members, supporters and friends were waiting to welcome him.

Mike Dolley: How the Conservatives are winning the support of the voters of Gibraltar

Mike Dolley is fourth on the Conservative Party list for the South West at next month's European Parliament election - a region which includes Gibraltar. Here he gives us an insight to the Conservative campaign on the Rock, about which there is more on the Gibraltar Conservatives website.

Every time I drive from my home in North Somerset to my office at Coleshill, I reflect as I cross the Gloucestershire/Worcestershire boundary on how I am leaving the South West and entering the West Midlands. The Tewkesbury constituency is the “northern frontier” of the vast Region I seek to represent in the European Parliament.

Initially the Scilly Isles were the most South Westerly point. But just over five years ago, the electors of Gibraltar were enfranchised by the European Courts and after something of a bidding war Gibraltar was added to the South West Region. At the time the issue of sovereignty was more prominent than ever, following the exposure of Labour’s shabby attempt to betray the Rock via some sort of joint sovereignty deal with Spain. Gibraltarians did not, and will not ever, forgive Labour. They are a highly politicised electorate who understand in the finest detail just what Messrs. Straw and Co. were up to.

As the then Regional Director in the South West, it fell to me to work out how we could capture that wave of anti-Government feeling and bring Gibraltarian voters firmly into the Conservative fold. The organised Trade Union vote has historically prospered in dockyard-dominated Gibraltar and Joe Bossano’s Gibraltar Socialist Labour Party has formal links with Labour (even though most felt utterly betrayed over sovereignty). A small team of us set about the task with alacrity.

Neil Parish MEP led the charge, arriving in Gibraltar the day the judgment was announced. Supporting him over the next few months were Euro candidates Richard Graham and Jack Lopresti (both of whom will hopefully enter Parliament next year representing South West seats), whilst the voluntary party was represented in the campaign by then Regional Chairman, Gordon Hirst. We quickly established a branch in Gibraltar, chaired by local accountant, Bernard Hazell.

Rupert Matthews: An update on the European campaign in the East Midlands

Rupert Matthews is third on the list of candidates for the East Midlands at June's European Parliament election. Here he gives us an update on that campaign.

If you are an MEP candidate and would like to write about the campaign in your region for ConservativeHome, please email Jonathan Isaby.

The Euro Campaign in the East Midlands has been one of the more interesting of the various elections in which I have stood as a candidate. The pace has been brisk, and has been quickening as we get closer to the start line for the formal campaign in May/June.

Compared to being a Council or Parliamentary Candidate, the Euro Campaign has been rather odd for us Euro Candidates. We have had no Branch or Association to support us and although everyone across the East Midlands party has been very helpful, it is not quite the same. Similarly, with six counties and around 3.5 million voters to cover, campaigning has been very different.

As a Council Candidate or Parliamentary Candidate, you could expect to get involved with specific issues and concerns. There are very few of these that cover the entire East Midlands that we can make our own. Usually, of course, it is Parliamentary and County candidates who have ownership of issues – and quite right too.

Our team in Derby, for instance, has been quick to highlight Labour’s dreadful decision to take a contract for railway rolling stock away from that city. We have helped out whenever we can. Council by-elections have been among the key events for getting stuck into street campaigning. I’ve lost count of the number of times we have been out delivering, canvassing or manning street stalls to back up local campaign teams. Great fun, and how I was brought to campaign from the great 1979 victory onwards.

Tony Devenish: An update on the European campaign in South East England

Tony Devenish is a Westminster councillor, a two-time parliamentary candidate and eighth on the list of candidates for South East England at June's European Parliament election. Here he gives us an update on that campaign.

If you are an MEP candidate and would like to write about the campaign in your region for ConservativeHome, please email Jonathan Isaby.

It’s nearly a year since ten candidates were selected to fight under the Conservative banner in the South East for the June 4th elections. Many ConHome readers will receive updates from sitting MEPs Dan Hannan, Richard Ashworth, Nirj Deva and James Elles, but I thought I’d take the opportunity to share my thoughts about the campaign to date here.

With Association Annual General Meetings on the go, things are hotting up across Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey and Sussex. The MEPs and the new candidates (Therese Coffey, Sarah Richardson, Richard Robinson, myself, Nina Kaariniemi and James Marc Brunel-Walker) all welcome feedback from ConHome readers; covering six and a half million electors within 84 parliamentary constituencies is a challenge!