Portrait of the Week – 19 June 2004

In local elections Labour did very badly, taking 26 per cent of the vote, compared with 29 per cent for the Liberal Democrats and 38 per cent for the Conservatives. ‘I am not saying we haven’t had a kicking,’ remarked Mr John Prescott, the deputy Prime Minister. In the European elections the UK Independence party took 12 of the 78 British seats, with 16 per cent of the vote. The Conservatives took 27 seats with 27 per cent of the vote; Labour 19 seats with 23 per cent; the Liberal Democrats 12 seats with 15 per cent. Asked what his hopes were for the European Parliament, Mr Robert Kilroy-Silk, a new Ukip member, answered: ‘Wreck it.’ Turnout was 38.9 per cent, higher than before but lower than the ‘low’ European average of 45 per cent; the British increase occurred whether or not postal voting was the only method available. Sinn Fein won seats both in Northern Ireland and in Ireland.