§ Mr. ClappisonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many seats were won by the Labour Party in(a) the Scotland region and (b) England and Wales in his Department's simulation of the 1994 European elections using the d'Hondt divisor and the Ste-Lague divisor. [30825]
§ Mr. George Howarth[holding answer 23 February 1998]: Home Office officials calculated the effect of using different divisors, based on the results of the 1994 European Parliamentary elections, in six of the eleven proposed electoral regions. In five of them, the Labour Party would have won the same number of seats using the d'Hondt and Sainte-Lague divisors. They were:
East Midlands: 3 seatsLondon: 6 seatsNorth East: 3 seatsSouth West: 2 seatsWales: 3 seats.In Scotland, the Labour Party would have won four seats with the d'Hondt divisor and three seats with the Sainte-Lague divisor.