Elections on 4 June 2009

Elections for the European Parliament and for the County Council took place on 4 June 2009.

Before the election, Nigel Agar represented Letchworth North West on the County Council. Unfortunately, this seat was lost . Full results of the election for Hertfordshire County Council can be seen on the HertsDirect website. Although the seat was taken by the Conservatives, their vote only increased by 2.9 percentage points. Labour and the Liberal Democrats lost votes to the Green Party, the English Democrats and the British National Party.

The result of the European election for the Eastern Region was that, as before, three Conservatives, two UKIP, one Liberal Democrat and one Labour were elected as MEPs.  So, Richard Howitt continues as our MEP. Labour's vote was down by 5.8 percentage points. However, the Conservatives (+0.4), UKIP (no change) and the Liberal Democrats (-0.2) failed to make a significant gains. Labour's lost vote went principally to the Green Party, whose vote increased by 3.2 percentage points, the rest going to the nine other parties and a single independent who stood.

After the election, Richard Howitt said that the European election had been hi-jacked by the furore over expenses of national MPs and expressed his anger at the disunity of the Party at Westminster. It is particularly ironic, because the Labour MEPs all have their expenses audited externally to show that they comply not only with the European Parliament's rules, but also with the stricter rules of the European Labour Party. Richard Howitt was rated number one for transparency by the East Anglian Daily Times. Two of the Conservative MEPs and both of the UKIP-elected MEPs refused to give the paper any details of their expenses.

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