Labour In early 2019 there was an ongoing debate within Labour as to what its policy should be with respect to Brexit. On 20 April, the party's deputy leader
Tom Watson argued the party needed to back a
second referendum on Brexit in order to present a clear alternative to and beat the Brexit Party, but that was not Labour's preferred option. A draft of a Labour leaflet that made no reference to a second referendum provoked a public row, including more than 90 Labour MPs and MEPs writing to the party's National Executive Committee (NEC) in protest. On 27 April, Labour announced that the original leaflet draft was to be redrafted to include details of the party's preparations for a general election, with a referendum if necessary to avoid what it called a "bad Tory deal". Labour's manifesto for the elections was agreed at an NEC meeting on 30 April, re-affirming its 2018 policy that it will first seek a Brexit deal on its terms (including a
Customs union), but if that is not possible, it will seek a general election, and, if that is not possible, a second referendum. Only one vote was held at the meeting, on an amendment from the
TSSA union that sought to commit Labour to a referendum on any Brexit deal, but this was rejected by a what NEC sources called a "clear" margin. Retiring Labour MEP
Mary Honeyball criticised this as "Not good enough" and some Labour Party members destroyed their membership cards in protest. However, some Remain-supporting Labour MPs, and Labour MPs sceptical of a second referendum, welcomed the decision. Labour's 9 May campaign launch stressed bringing the country together. Jeremy Corbyn talked of a "healing process" between those who supported Leave and Remain. By mid-May, Watson and Labour's
Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer were arguing for a second referendum, yet their shadow international trade secretary
Barry Gardiner stated "Labour is not a Remain party now". In most voting areas,
e.g. Scotland and South West England, all Labour candidates stated their support for a second referendum, Polling in mid-May suggested both Labour supporters and the electorate in general were split as to whether Labour supported remaining or leaving the EU.
Conservative The Conservative government was hopeful of agreeing a withdrawal deal with the EU soon enough that UK MEPs would not take up their seats. The party did not spend any central money on candidate campaigning, did not publish a manifesto and did not hold a campaign launch. One Conservative MEP said that the deficit of campaigning would be used as an excuse if the party does poorly in the elections. Many party activists were demotivated given the failure of the government to deliver Brexit. A survey of 781 Conservative councillors found that 40% planned to vote for the
Brexit Party. Conservative MPs, including
Lucy Allan, tweeted positive comments about the Brexit Party. In response, the Conservative Party issued a warning that individuals campaigning for or endorsing other parties will be expelled from the party. The Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party, Theresa May, had announced her intention to resign before the next general election, but further pressure mounted on her to be clear about her timetable for departure, with May meeting the party's
1922 Committee on the matter on 16 May 2019. This resulted in May agreeing to stand down by 30 June 2019. Campaigning by possible successors accelerated after the
local elections.
UKIP UKIP argued it was "the authentic party of Brexit, the true party of Leave", to quote party leader
Gerard Batten. Alongside the Conservatives, UKIP was one of two Brexit-supporting parties fielding a candidate in every region of the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland. Further controversy came when one of UKIP's sitting MEPs,
Stuart Agnew, addressed a pro-apartheid club of expatriate South Africans in London that reportedly had links to the
far-right.
Brexit Party Nigel Farage, the Brexit Party and former UKIP leader, said that there was "no difference between the Brexit party and UKIP in terms of policy, [but] in terms of personnel, there's a vast difference", criticising UKIP's connections to the far right. On 15 April 2019, three more sitting female UKIP MEPs defected to the Brexit Party, criticising UKIP's nomination of Benjamin as a candidate. In particular, Collins noted UKIP leader Gerard Batten's defence of Benjamin's "use of a non-
rape threat as 'satire'" to be an especially compelling factor. Two further UKIP MEPs moved to the Brexit Party on 17 April. On 23 April, Farage said that the Brexit Party was not "here just to get a protest vote on 23 May – far from it, 23 May for us is just the beginning". He also argued that the better the performance of the Brexit Party, the lower the chance of a second referendum on Brexit. Farage argued that should the Brexit Party get most votes in the elections, his party should get a seat at the UK/EU negotiations. Commentators such as
Marina Hyde raised the concern of a split vote among pro-Remain parties reducing the number of pro-Remain MEPs being elected.
Vince Cable, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, proposed standing joint candidates with the Greens and Change UK on a common policy of seeking a
second referendum on Brexit, but the other parties rejected the idea. Change UK's co-founder
Chuka Umunna confirmed the Lib Dem approach, but he Independent MEP
Julie Girling, then supporting Change UK, said she had decided not to stand for re-election as a Change UK candidate because of the concern about maximising the Remain vote. On 10 May, she endorsed the Liberal Democrats. Change UK and Girling clarified that she had not been and was not a Change UK MEP, with Girling saying she sat as an independent MEP. On 15 May, David Macdonald, the lead candidate for Change UK in Scotland, switched to endorsing the Liberal Democrats in order not to split the pro-Remain vote. On 22 May, Allen said that she and another Change UK MP,
Sarah Wollaston, wanted to advise Remain supporters to vote Liberal Democrat outside of London and South East England, but they were overruled by other party members. The Greens said that joint lists were not "desirable" and that there were "fundamental ideological differences" on other issues between the parties that wanted a second referendum. The Green Party campaigned on a platform calling for action on climate change as well as an anti-Brexit platform. The
Liberal Democrats ran on a "stop Brexit" message, seeking the support of those who wanted the UK to remain in the EU. Polling in the final fortnight put the Liberal Democrats ahead of the other pro-Remain parties and overtaking Labour in some polls. Change UK (which in early April was still known as the Independent Group) saw the election as an important launchpad for its new party, On 16 April 2019, two former Conservative MEPs, who had left the party to sit as independents within the
European People's Party grouping, announced their support for Change UK. The
Renew Party agreed to support Change UK at the elections, and the latter included candidates from Renew's approved list.
Molly Scott Cato, a sitting MEP for the Green Party of England and Wales, criticised Change UK as "a single-issue party with no coherent policy platform beyond opposing Brexit".
Other parties The SNP campaign launch was marred by tens of thousands of personalised letters being sent to the wrong people. The mistake was reported to be in the data supplied by SNP HQ, run by
Peter Murrell, husband of SNP leader
Nicola Sturgeon. The party apologised for the error: the party referred itself to the
Information Commissioner's Office and might have been fined, but was cleared of breaching data protection regulations. The DUP campaigned on sending a message to "get on with Brexit".
Later events Local elections were held in most of England and all of Northern Ireland on 2 May. The results saw both Conservatives and Labour losing seats in what
The Guardian called a "Brexit backlash" while the Liberal Democrats, Greens and independents made gains. The Liberal Democrats made the biggest gains which the Lib Dem leader Vince Cable put down to a rejection of the Conservatives and Labour over their Brexit approaches.
Stephen Bush, writing in the
New Statesman, argued that the Lib Dem success in the local elections make it the most likely party for Remain voters to rally around at the European elections while James Moore in
The Independent described them as having the "momentum" leading into the European elections. Alliance (the Lib Dems' sister party in Northern Ireland), other smaller parties and independents also made significant gains in the local elections in Northern Ireland. On 18 May, former Conservative
Deputy Prime Minister and sitting Conservative peer
Michael Heseltine said he would vote for the Liberal Democrats instead of the Conservatives because of his own party's support for Brexit. Heseltine subsequently had the Conservative whip suspended, owing to his comments. Polling after the local elections saw the Brexit Party in front, followed by Labour, with the Liberal Democrats taking third from the Conservatives. Conservative sources predicted the party could come even lower than fourth. May then proposed to bring a new deal to the House of Commons for a vote in early June, which she described as an "improved package of measures", after which she was expected to step down as Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party. The campaign saw multiple cases of
milkshakes being thrown at controversial MEP candidates on the right. The protests began against Carl Benjamin, the anti-feminist social media activist who had attracted controversy for jokes about rape, and activist Tommy Robinson. They later extended to Nigel Farage, leader of the Brexit Party. Police asked a Scottish fast food outlet, near where a Farage rally was to take place, not to sell milkshakes on the night of the event. On 21 May, the Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party, Theresa May made a speech outlining her plan to introduce an EU withdrawal agreement bill in June that would allow the Commons to make amendments,
e.g. in favour of a Customs Union or a second referendum, but this was received badly by much of her own party as well as by other parties. There were growing calls for her to resign on 22 May, the day before the election. On the day after the vote, May announced that she would resign as party leader on 7 June. There were several reports on the day of problems encountered by non-UK UK-resident EU citizens not being able to vote because their paperwork had not been processed in time, with opposition politicians raising concerns as to whether there had been systemic failures. At least three councils admitted that the compressed timescale of the election meant that they had not been able to send postal ballots out in time for some voters overseas. A report by
The Guardian after the election found that in many parts of the country there were low levels of completion of UC1 forms, required by UK-resident EU citizens in order for them to vote in the UK. After the election, the
European Commission complained to the UK government about the "obstacles" faced by EU citizens in voting. A month later, the Dutch Interior Ministry stated that almost half the local UK registration officials had failed to send the UC1 data to the Dutch authorities, and that a portion of the data sent was unusable, despite complaints by the Dutch government about similar issues in 2014.
Between the vote and the count Because results could not be announced until the last European Union member country's polls had closed, and most countries in the EU voted on Sunday, the counting of UK ballots started on Sunday 26 May 2019. Within a day of the polls closing, two party leaders and one deputy party leader announced their plans to resign. On 24 May, Theresa May announced her plan to resign as leader of the Conservative Party on 7 June, which would trigger a
leadership contest. On the same day,
Mike Hookem resigned as deputy leader of UKIP in order to challenge for the leadership. Vince Cable, leader of the Liberal Democrats, had previously stated his intention to stand down after the local elections and European Parliament elections. The party's
leadership contest officially started on 24 May. Two Labour politicians announced their departures from the party after the vote: departing MEP
Mary Honeyball and former Welsh AM
Leighton Andrews; Andrews said he had voted Green. Both criticised Labour over alleged
antisemitism and their failure to oppose Brexit. He later revealed that he voted for the Liberal Democrats and was expelled from the Labour Party.
Party Brexit positions Among other parties, the
SDLP opposed Brexit and supported a second referendum, but it supported the withdrawal agreement if Brexit is to take place. The
Alliance Party opposed Brexit, while
TUV supported it. ==Debates==