The European Parliament
The European Parliament frames much of the legislation which subsequently becomes law in the UK. It is elected by voters across the whole of the European Union - over 340 million people voted in 2004. The system is one of proportional representation, where each political party fields a list of candidates, and voters choose which party to vote for. The elected candidates then represent the region which elected them. There are 12 of these regions in the UK, and one region covers the whole of Greater London.
London has nine seats in the European Parliament, and in the 2004 elections Labour received about a third of the vote. We were therefore awarded three seats. Our Labour MEP's are Claude Moraes, Mary Honeyball and Robert Evans.
European Parliament web site: http://www.europarl.org.uk
http://www.claudemoraes.net/
http://www.maryhoneyball.net/
http://www.robertevansmep.net/