Examining the career paths of members of European Parliament elected in the 2019 European Parliament election by the United Kingdom

Abstract

The European Parliament is the European Union’s sole democratically elected institution, with elections held within the member states every 5 years. In 2019, amidst negotiations on the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU, known as Brexit, the British public went to the polls to elect a cohort of Members of European Parliament, with the knowledge they would be expelled from the parliament upon the completion of Brexit. This thesis examines who these MEPs were and their career paths, examining their political experiences before and after sitting in the European Parliament, and analyses the factors which influenced their political careers.