European elections in Lancashire and the North West: How and when to vote and a full list of candidates

Despite the UK voting to leave the European Union in 2016, 73 members of the European parliament, the directly elected body of the EU, will be voted in today with results expected on Sunday 26 May.

Here is everything you need to know about the elections, including a full list of candidates for North West England.

How do I vote?

Provided you are registered to vote (the deadline to register for these elections passed on 7 May), you vote in the same way you would for a general or council election.

You will be able to cast one vote for a party with the winners calculated using a system called d’Hondt proportional representation using a regional list of candidates for each party.

As it stands in the constituency of North West England, there are eight MEPs with three UKIP, three Labour, and two Conservative elected in 2014.

Polling stations will open from 7am and close at 10pm on 23 May, with results expected on Sunday.

The details of where you should vote and which polling station to go to will be on your polling card which you should have received in the post. You do not need your polling card to vote.

Who is standing in the North West?

In the North West, the regional list for each party in the European elections is the following.

Change UK: Andrea Cooper, Dan Price, Arun Banerji, Michael Taylor, Philippa Olive, Victoria Desmond, Andrew Graystone, Elisabeth Knight.

Conservatives: Sajjad Haider Karim, Kevin Beaty, Jane Howard, Arnold Saunders, Wendy Maisey, Thomas Lord, Anthony Pickles, Attika Choudhary.

English Democrats: Stephen Morris, Valerie Morris.

Green Party: Gina Dowding, Wendy Olsen, Jessica Northey, Geraldine Coggins, Rosie Mills, Astrid Johnson, Daniel Jerrome, James Booth.

Labour Party: Theresa Griffin, Julie Ward, Wajid Khan, Erica Lewis, David Brennan, Claire Cozier, Saf Ismail, Yvonne Tennant.

Liberal Democrats: Chris Davies, Jane Brophy, Helen Foster-Grime, Anna Fryer, Sam Al-Hamdani, Rebecca Forrest, John Studholme, Frederick Van Mierlo.

The Brexit Party: Claire Fox, Henrik Nielsen, David Bull, Gary Harvey, Ajay Jagota, Elizabeth Babade, Sally Bate, John Kelly.

UK European Union Party (UKEUP): Sophie Larroque.

UK Independence Party (UKIP): Adam Richardson, Jeff Armstrong, Fiona Mills, Nathan Ryding, Michael Felse, Ben Fryer, John Booker, Alexander Craig.

Independent candidates: Mohmmad Aslam, Tommy Robinson.