Between 2009 and the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the EU on 31 January 2020 it returned five MEPs, elected using the D'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation.

The constituency corresponded to the East Midlands region of England, comprising the counties of Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Northamptonshire and most of Lincolnshire.

Notes: In August 2005, four of the MEPs for the region (Clark, Heaton-Harris, Helmer and Whitehead) sent a joint letter to President of the European Parliament Josep Borrell to complain of Kilroy-Silk: "He seems to have done little or no work as a constituency MEP for the East Midlands.

They complained that Kilroy-Silk was not "fulfilling the pledge he made on becoming an MEP, to serve the electorate of his region" and to call for him to "either do the job for which he is paid, or get out and leave it to those who can.

"[8]The parliament has no power to remove Mr Kilroy-Silk, who is understood to have attended the minimum number of plenary sessions required to be eligible for his parliamentary allowances.