Euroscepticism in The United Kingdom - History

History

Although at present a significant proportion of Conservatives are hostile to the European Union, it was the Conservative Party that took the United Kingdom into what then was the European Communities. Nevertheless, certain groups of Conservatives still opposed British accession to the Common Market. One of the earliest groups formed especially against British involvement in Europe was the initially Conservative Party-based Anti-Common Market League, whose president Victor Montagu infamously declared that opponents of the Common Market did not want to "subject to a lot of frogs and huns".

Conversely, much of the opposition to Britain's EU membership used to come from Labour politicians and trade unionists who feared bloc membership would impede socialism. However, many Labourites subsequently came to welcome the EU. This shift largely took place in the 1980s during the period of Margaret Thatcher's premiership, when she aggressively pursued right-wing policies whilst Jacques Delors in his role as President of the European Commission emphasised the idea of a "social Europe", particularly in his speech to the 1988 TUC congress.

Although the British government was favourable to the creation of the European Communities, the United Kingdom did not become a founding member. However, trade with European Communities ended up accounting for more of Britain's trade than with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), which had been established partially as an alternative to the European Communities. This led Great Britain to reconsider its policy, moving closer to the EEC and opening accession negotiations in 1961. French president Charles de Gaulle strongly resisted, arguing that the UK was closer to American policies than European ones, and would therefore attempt to "sabotage" the community. Consequently, France vetoed the UK's membership bid in 1963 and again in 1967.

The Labour Party, then in opposition, spoke against the European Communities. The party leader Hugh Gaitskell once declared that joining the European Communities would mean "the end of a thousand years of history". A second attempt was made in 1967, but it was again rejected by a French veto. When de Gaulle stepped down from power, British membership of the EEC became feasible at last. Labour changed from its traditional opposition towards the European Communities and began to support membership. After the party came to power, Britain applied to join for a third time in 1969. Finally, Britain joined the communities under the Conservative administration in 1973.

Despite the decision to join the European Communities, scepticism about membership prompted the Labour government to hold a referendum in 1975 on the permanence in the Communities. The question asked from the voters was:

"Parliament has decided to consult the electorate on the question whether the UK should remain in the European Economic Community: Do you want the UK to remain in the EEC?"

British membership of the EEC was endorsed by 67% of those voting, with a turnout of 64.5%.

The debate between Eurosceptics and EU supporters is ongoing in British political parties, whose membership is of varied standpoints. The two main political parties in Britain, the Conservative Party (in government) and the Labour Party (in the opposition) both have within them a broad spectrum of views concerning the European Union.

In the 1970s and early 1980s the Labour Party was the more Eurosceptic of the two parties, with more anti-European Communities MPs than the Conservatives. In 1975, Labour held a special conference on British membership and the party voted 2-to-1 for Britain to leave the European Communities. In 1979, the Labour manifesto declared that a Labour government would "oppose any move towards turning the Community into a federation" and, in 1983, it still favoured British withdrawal from the EEC. Under the leadership of Neil Kinnock after 1983, however, the party dropped its opposition to the European Communities and instead favoured greater British integration into European Economic and Monetary Union.

The financier Sir James Goldsmith formed the Referendum Party as a single-issue party formed by to fight the 1997 General Election, calling for a referendum on aspects of the UK's relationship with the European Union. It planned to contest every constituency where there was no leading candidate in favour of such a referendum, and briefly held a seat in the House of Commons after George Gardiner, the Conservative MP for Reigate, changed parties following a battle against deselection by his local party. The party polled 800,000 votes and finished fourth, but did not win a seat in the House of Commons.

Many commentators believe over-interest in the issue to be an important reason why the Conservative Party lost the General Election of 2001. They argue that the British electorate was more influenced by domestic issues than by European affairs.

After the electoral defeat of the UK Conservatives in 2001, the issue of Eurosceptism was important in the contest to elect a new party leader. The winner, Iain Duncan Smith, was seen as more Eurosceptic than his predecessor, William Hague.

As opposition leader, Iain Duncan Smith attempted to disaffiliate the British Conservative Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) from the federalist European People's Party Group. As MEPs must maintain a pan-European alliance to retain parliamentary privileges, Duncan Smith sought the merger of Conservative MEPs into the Eurosceptic Union for a Europe of Nations (UEN) group. Conservative MEPs vetoed this move because of the presence within the UEN of representatives of neo-fascist parties who do not share similar domestic politics. In 2004, Duncan Smith's successor, Michael Howard, emphasised that Conservative MEPs would remain in the EPP Group so as to maintain influence in the European Parliament. However Michael Howard's successor, David Cameron pledged to remove Conservative MEPs from the EPP Group which has now been implemented.

The UK's third-largest parliamentary party, the Liberal Democrats, is strongly pro-EU and advocate institutional reform to advance European federalism with a greater role for national parliaments in scrutinising EU legislation but a reduced ability (through the raising of Qualified Majority Voting blocking thresholds as in the Lisbon Treaty) to block or amend it.

The United Kingdom Independence Party, which advocates the UK's complete withdrawal from the European Union, received 16% of the vote and gained 12 MEPs in the 2004 European Election. The Party did even better in the 2009 UK European Election, coming in second, above the incumbent Labour Party.

The Scottish National Party (SNP) has tended to be pro-EU since the 1980s. As the SNP's heartlands tend to be in fishing and farming areas of Scotland, they have been seen as a real threat to the pro-European SNP. However, this has not yet emerged.

Even today, the Labour Party is also split between Eurosceptic and pro-EU factions. Historically, the party tended towards Euroscepticism, but under Tony Blair its policies became generally pro-EU. However, a significant minority of Labour MPs have formed the Labour Against the Euro group, opposing British membership of the single currency. The group has support from minority parts of the Trade Union movement, while the majority of trade unions remain staunchly pro-EU.