BRITAIN will go to the polls this Thursday, May 23, for the European parliamentary elections.

The government admitted that the UK would have to take part in the elections after it became clear that Brexit would not be delivered in time to avoid it.

How does it work?

The East has seven MEP (Member of European Parliament) seats available.

When the current MEPs were elected they were made up of three UKIP representatives, three Conservatives and one Labour.

But Patrick O'Flynn subsequently defected to the Social Democratic Party and Tim Aker switched to the Thurrock Independents and later the Brexit Party.

Only Geoffrey Van Orden, John Flack, Stewart Agnew and Alex Mayer are standing again in the 2019 elections.

The elections use the complicated D’Hondt formula, which calculates how many seats should be allocated to each party based on vote share.

If Party A is given four seats, the top four candidates on its list are elected.

You vote for a party rather than an individual candidate.

Who can I vote for?

See the full list of candidates, listed by party.

This election sees the emergence of two new parties.

Breakaway party Change UK has 10 candidates, after it was started by a group of anti-Brexit MPs who left Labour and the Conservatives and formed as the Independent group earlier this year.

Nigel Farage's new Brexit party also fields 10 candidates, having been started by the former UKIP leader in April.

Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats, the Green Party, and English Democrats are also contesting the election, as well as one independents.

READ MORE: European Elections 2019 parties and what they stand for

THE FULL LIST

Change UK

  • Emma Taylor
  • Neil Carmichael
  • Bhavna Joshi
  • Michelle de Vries
  • Amanda Gummer
  • Thomas Graham
  • Roger Casale

Conservative

  • Geoffrey Van Orden
  • John Christopher Flack
  • Joe Rich
  • Thomas Rhys Hughes McLaren
  • Joel Ralph Charles
  • Wazz Mughal
  • Thomas Roger Smith

English Democrats

  • Robin Charles Tilbrook
  • Charles Jeremy Vickers
  • Bridget Lee Vickers
  • Paul Kevin Wiffen

Green Party

  • Catherine Rowett
  • Rupert Read
  • Martin Schmierer
  • Fiona Radic
  • Paul Jeater
  • Pallavi Devulapalli
  • Jeremy Caddick

Labour

  • Alex Mayer
  • Chris Vince
  • Sharon Taylor
  • Alvin Shum
  • Anna Smith
  • Adam Scott
  • Javeria Hussain

Liberal Democrats

  • Barbara Ann Gibson
  • Lucy Kathleen Nethsingha
  • Fionna Margaret Ruth Tod
  • Stephen John Robinson
  • Sandy Walkington
  • Marie Clare Goldman
  • Jules Ewart

The Brexit Party

  • Richard James Tice
  • Michael Eric Heaver
  • June Alison Mummery
  • Paul Joseph Hearn
  • Priscilla Mary Huby
  • Sean Robert John Lever
  • Edmund John Fordham

UKIP

  • Stuart John Agnew
  • Paul Oakley
  • Elizabeth Eirwen Jones
  • William Ashpole
  • Alan Graves
  • John Richard Wallace
  • John Whitby

Independent

  • Attila Csordas