Four British members of the European Parliament will be leaving Brussels after being elected to the House of Commons at Thursday's (8 June) general elections, a spokeswoman for the European parliament said at a press conference on Friday.

The four are: Conservative MEPs Vicky Ford and Andrew Lewer, and Labour MEPs Afzal Khan and Anneliese Dodds.

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MEP Ian Duncan (l) was defeated by just 21 votes (Photo: European Parliament)

Ford is currently the chair of the EU parliament's committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection, and a member of the parliament's Bureau, which takes care of internal procedure.

Khan is vice chairman of the subcommittee on Security and Defence, while Dodds leads the delegation to the EU-Montenegro Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committee.

A spokesman for the UK Conservative party's political family in the EU, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, said that “we could have had five MEPs elected”.

Conservative MEP Ian Duncan lost in his district to the Scottish National Party's (SNP) candidate with a difference of a mere 21 votes.

SNP candidate Pete Wishart received 21,804 votes in the Perth and North Perthshire constituency, while Duncan got 21,783.

Duncan's defeat is particularly sour, since he had prioritised campaigning in the UK over his position at the EU parliament.

The Scottish MEP had been the parliament's negotiator for an upcoming reform of the EU's Emissions Trading System (ETS), the bloc's flagship climate tool.

Duncan was appointed rapporteur in 2015. After his compatriots voted to leave the EU last year, against his wishes, he announced he would resign as ETS rapporteur, only to keep the post when urged by his fellow MEPs.

But after the legislative phase moved to negotiations between the parliament and member states, there had been some annoyance over Duncan's inaccessibility during the UK election campaign.

One negotiating round had reportedly been postponed when Duncan didn't show up.

Last week, Duncan resigned as ETS rapporteur, according to Reuters because he was “fully focused on campaigning”.