Lib Dems Celebrate Election of Two MEPs in South East

12.51.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 9th Jun 2009

The Liberal Democrats have returned 2 MEPs to the European Parliament from the South East

Liberal Democrats are celebrating their success in the South East as they retained their two seats in the European Parliamentary elections.

Sharon Bowles was successfully re-elected for her second term as MEP while Catherine Bearder was elected for the first time in place of Emma Nicholson who is retiring.

Following the count, which went into the small hours of Monday morning, Sharon commented:

"I am delighted that here in the South East we have retained our two seats in the European Parliament.

"It has been an interesting campaign which unfortunately has been overshadowed by dramatic national events.

"I now look forward to a new term and hope that we can re-focus to continue the work of the Liberal Democrats in the European Parliament. I've already got a busy week of meetings in the city in view of the huge amounts of financial regulation that will shortly have to pass through Parliament."

Catherine said she would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone across the region that worked so hard for her and Sharon in ensuring that two Liberal Democrat MEPs continued to represent the South East in the European parliament.