New seats for old

8.54.32am BST (GMT +0100) Sun 7th Oct 2007

The European Parliament has now confirmed the new allocation of MEPs for each country following EU expansion. This leaves the UK with five less seats which is likely to mean that London will lose a seat going from the current 9 to 8. The reduction is necessary because the parliament is limited to 750 MEPs regardless of the number of member states. While this does make it more difficult for the Liberal Democrats to gain a second seat here in London with good campaign looking to build on our traditional strengths in community politics and the environment we can still do it. While the new deal still leaves the smaller countries over represented overall the new seat allocations more broadly represent the size of each Member State which is to be welcomed.