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Panelism in Action: Labour's 1999 European Parliamentary Candidate Selections
Author(s) -
Wring Dominic,
Baker David,
Seawright David
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
the political quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.373
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1467-923X
pISSN - 0032-3179
DOI - 10.1111/1467-923x.00298
Subject(s) - politics , library science , political science , citation , action (physics) , media studies , public administration , sociology , law , computer science , physics , quantum mechanics
The 1999 European Assembly elections were fought under newly devised rules. The adoptionof a more proportional electoral procedure in place of the traditional single member majoritariansystem was designed to bring the UK into line with the other EU member states. This departurefrom 'first past the post' necessitated a change in the way prospective Members of the EuropeanParliament were selected. In the event this proved controversial. Of further contention was thedecision to adopt a closed list system whereby electors were not able to vote for a preferredcandidate. Prospective MEPs were thus numerically ranked in multiple member constituencies.The selection of European parliamentary candidates attracted considerable media interest.Various newspapers covered, with relish, the purging of Europhiles from the already minimalcompliment of Conservative MEPs. Aside from Tom Spencer, who resigned for personalreasons following revelations about his personal life, others such as Brendan Donnelly and JohnStevens declined to serve as candidates following their effective demotion by the party'sselection procedure. Donnelly and Stevens took their grievance further and formed a neworganisation, the Pro Euro Conservatives, in order to (unsuccessfully) contest the forthcomingelections. Another Europhile, London MEP James Moorhouse, left the party for the LiberalDemocrats in protest at William Hague's policy pronouncements. By contrast the new crop ofprospective MEPs appeared to reflect the strong strain of Euroscepticism within theConservative grassroots. The Hague leadership welcomed membership involvement in thismatter. By contrast the Labour hierarchy proved more circumspect about its candidate selectionprocedure. This paper seeks to assess whether there is substance to the charge that the newsystem has in effect enabled officials from the Millbank headquarters to dictate who would andwould not become MEPs.