Bennion advised Charles Kennedy on agricultural issues during his leadership of the Liberal Democrats. Bennion went on to serve on the party's federal policy committee for eight years.[1]
European parliament
He was second on the party list for the West Midlands constituency at the 2009 European Parliament election,but the party's 12% share of the vote entitled them to only one seat. When Liz Lynne stepped down in February 2012,electoral rules meant that Bennion,as the next Liberal Democrat candidate on the list,took her seat.[2] He stood for re-election in 2014 and was placed top of his party's list of candidates,but he lost his seat as the Liberal Democrats polled 5.6% of the vote,too little to secure one of the West Midlands' seven seats. He re-gained his seat in 2019.[3]
He sat on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Sub-Committee on Human Rights,and also acted as a substitute on the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection,as a member of the 9th Parliament from July 2019 to January 2020.[4]
European Parliamentary Candidate for West Midlands (European Parliament constituency) in 1999, 2004 and 2009, being elected to No2 on the Liberal Democrats' regional list in 2009 taking his seat in 2012 after Liz Lynne stepped down. Phil was re-elected as no1 on the Liberal Democrats' regional list in 2019.
2019
Map showing highest polling party by counting area in the 2019 European Parliament election;
Anthea McIntyre became an MEP in November 2011 when the relevant provisions of the Treaty of Lisbon came into effect, her addition being based on the 2009 vote. Phil Bennion became an MEP on the resignation of Liz Lynne.
Elizabeth Lynne is a British politician, and was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the West Midlands for the Liberal Democrats from the 1999 European election until she retired in 2012. Previously she had been elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Rochdale at the 1992 general election but was defeated at the 1997 general election.
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East Midlands was a constituency of the European Parliament in the United Kingdom, established in 1999 with six members to replace single-member districts. Between 2009 and the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the EU on 31 January 2020 it returned five MEPs, elected using the D'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation.
West Midlands was a constituency of the European Parliament. It was represented by seven MEPs using the D'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation. In 2009, the constituency was reduced to six seats, but also elected a "virtual MEP" who took her seat in the Parliament when the Treaty of Lisbon came into effect. The constituency was represented by seven MEPs prior to the 2009 election, until the UK exit from the European Union on 31 January 2020.
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The 2019 European Parliament election was the United Kingdom's component of the 2019 European Parliament election, held on Thursday 23 May 2019 and the results were announced on Sunday 26 and Monday 27 May 2019, after all the other EU countries had voted. This was the United Kingdom's final participation in a European Parliament election before leaving the European Union on 31 January 2020, and was also the last election to be held under the provisions of the European Parliamentary Elections Act 2002 before its repeal under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.
The inaugural West Midlands mayoral election was held on 4 May 2017 to elect the Mayor of the West Midlands, with subsequent elections to be held every four years from May 2020. The election took place alongside five elections for English metro mayors and other local elections, and ahead of the general election on 8 June 2017.
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