The new 31st October deadline for Brexit comes with the condition that the UK take part in the 23rd May European MEP elections (or leave by 1st June).
As reported last month, at least one party has already prepared for the eventuality of an EU MEP election and started their selections for candidates.
At the time OnTheWight contacted the Isle of Wight branches of the Conservative Party, Green Party, Labour Party, Liberal Democrats and UKIP. Below are their responses.
Island Conservatives
David Pugh said on behalf of the Island Conservatives,
“Any preparations would take place at a national and regional level.”
Island Greens
Green Party Parliamentary candidate for the Isle of Wight, Vix Lowthion, was shortlisted as an MEP candidate in March and the results should be announced fairly soon. 22 shortlisted candidates have been battling it out for ten places.
Island Labour
Julian Critchley, Island Labour’s spokesperson, told OnTheWight,
“The NEC have agreed the process for selecting Labour candidates for the Euro elections. They’d been working on the basis that this wouldn’t be necessary due to Brexit, but obviously things have changed, so selections will now go ahead.”
IW LibDems
Nick Stuart from the IW Liberal Democrats told OnTheWight he was looking into the process and would get back to us.
UKIP IW
Daryll Pitcher from UKIP Isle of Wight said,
Image: Twitter Trends 2019 under CC BY 2.0“Like all political parties UKIP is aware of the potential for EU elections. Obviously we would prefer that the UK is out of the EU by the time those elections are due. However, given the state of the Conservatives it would come as no surprise if Theresa May sold the country down the river and we ended up with a long extension to Article 50, thereby necessitating EU elections.
“Should these elections happen UKIP will fight them, and we will fight to win them as we did in 2014.
“I am not at liberty to tell you where we are with preparations, but what I can say is that they do exist. If we need to fight to save Brexit, we will be ready.”
