What voting patterns in the European Parliament say about UK political parties’ stance on Europe

Renaud Thillaye analyses how British MEPs voted during the 2009-14 European Parliament. He finds that each of the four parties (Conservatives, LibDems, Labour and UKIP) had a distinctive attitude in the European Parliament and varying degrees of success. The LibDems are reliable partners, Labour’s attitude has been more intricate and ambiguous, the Conservatives can be seen as reluctant, and UKIP, unsurprisingly, stands out as ‘dismissive’. The analysis confirms the difficulty for political parties of reconciling engagement at EU level and domestic politics.