RIBBLE Valley MP Nigel Evans has branded as "ludicrous" the situation by which only three of the 110 candidates for Thursday's European elections in the North West live in East Lancashire.

The elections for the European Parliament are being run on a new voting system which will see people asked to vote for political parties rather than individual candidates, with ten seats on offer in a huge North West constituency which runs from the Scottish borders to Cheshire. Parties will be allocated seats on the proportion of the votes they win and ten parties have fielded ten candidates in the region.

But only three candidates come from East Lancashire, where there are six districts, with the majority living in the Manchester and Merseyside areas.

The three East Lancashire-based candidates are Roger Wood from Rawtenstall, who is standing for the British National Party, Robin Field from Blackburn, who is standing for the Green Party and Graham Cannon from Colne, who is standing for the UK Independence Party.

Mr Evans said: "The system we had before meant that people felt remote from their MEP, but this new system is ludicrous. "People who rightly want somebody from East Lancashire representing their interests in Europe are not going to have that chance. I think it will be a massive turn-off for voters who will feel disgusted and cheated when they go to the polls."

Labour MEP Mark Hendrick, who currently sits in the European Parliament under the old system for a seat which represents much of East Lancashire, is also on the list of candidates.

He lives in the Ribble Valley parliamentary constituency but not the Ribble Valley Borough Council area.

Mr Hendrick said: "There are five to six million people in the North West and it is unlikely that with only ten MEPs to be elected every sub region will be represented.

"The Labour party has tried to have a geographical spread but in such a large region not every area will be represented."

Liberal Democrat candidate Chris Davies, based in Oldham, said: "The North West is born on Thursday and people will increasingly have loyalty to the North West as a a region.

"I was born in Lancashire, grew up in Cheshire, was a councillor on Merseyside and an MP in Greater Manchester so I believe I am the ideal person to represent the North West.

"The Liberal Democrats balloted their 7,000 members in the North West and these were the candidates we came up with."

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