Somerset and North Devon (European Parliament constituency)

Somerset and North Devon
Somerset and North Devon
European Parliament constituency
	European Parliament logo
Member state	United Kingdom
Created	1994
Dissolved	1999
MEPs	1
Sources
	[1]

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.

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

European Parliament election, 1994: Somerset and North Devon^[2]
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)