Euroscepticism in the United Kingdom is a continuum of belief ranging from the opposition to certain political policies of the European Union to the complete opposition to the United Kingdom’s membership of the European Union. It has been a significant element in the politics of the United Kingdom (UK). A 2009 Eurobarometer survey of EU citizens showed support for membership of the EU was lowest in the United Kingdom, alongside Latvia and Hungary.[1]: 91–3
Levels of support for the EU have historically been lower in the UK than most other member states. UK citizens are the least likely to feel a sense of
The decision of the electorate to vote in favour of Brexit marks the first time in history that a member state has decided to leave the European Union. The UK formally left the EU on 31 January 2020.
History
In the
xenophobic sentiment has existed for centuries, but Euroscepticism is different from the anti-Europeanism more prevalent in American culture.[2] In the late 19th century Britain's foreign policy stance of minimal involvement in European affairs was characterised as "splendid isolation".[3]
The European Unity movement as a political project after 1945 was supported and inspired by British figures such as
othering of European unity as a Continental issue and somebody else's problem has been a recurrent theme.[6] Pro-European British politicians and citizens have faced various defeats and humiliations with regard to Britain's steps in the direction of increased European integration.[7] Even parties like the Liberal Democrats with a clearly pro-European platform, have members that share the British lack of enthusiasms "of all things European".[8] After joining the EU, confrontational attitudes of British politicians, as in the UK rebate controversy, gained further popularity among the British public, and many Britons feel a much stronger affection for the Commonwealth of Nations than they ever have for the EU.[5][failed verification
Britain was urged to join and lead Western Europe in the immediate aftermath of World War II. The
European Defence Community
.
Whilst
pan-Europeanism[9] and called for a "United States of Europe" and the creation of a "Council of Europe",[9]
he did not have Britain join the ECSC in 1951.
We have our own dream and our own task. We are with Europe, but not of it. We are linked but not combined. We are interested and associated but not absorbed.[10]
In the years before, only the British extreme right – in particular,
fascist politician Oswald Mosley – were rather outspoken, based on the Union Movement and the Europe a Nation slogan, for a stronger integration of Britain with Europe.[11][12] The British elites did not assume Britain should or could take part as a simple member in the European communities at that time.[13] The reservation was based less on economic considerations, since European integration would have offset the decreasing importance of trade within the Commonwealth of Nations trade,[14] but rather on political philosophy.[14] In Britain, the concept of unlimited sovereignty, based on the British legal system and parliamentary tradition was, and is, held in high esteem and presents a serious impediment to attempts at integration into a Continental legal framework.[14]
The Labour Party leader
Anti-Common Market League, whose president Victor Montagu declared that opponents of the Common Market did not want to "subject [themselves] to a lot of frogs and huns".[16] Conversely, much of the opposition to Britain's EU membership came from Labour politicians and trade unionists who feared bloc membership would impede socialist policies, although this was never the universal Labour Party opinion. In 2002, a minority of Labour MPs, and others such as Denis Healey, formed the Labour Against the Euro group in 2002, opposing British membership of the single currency.[17] The Trades Union Congress remains strongly pro-EU.[18]
Impact of the Suez Crisis 1956
Even before the events of the Suez Crisis in 1956, the United Kingdom had faced strains in its relationship with the U.S. After the Suez conflict it had finally to accept that it could no longer assume that it was the preferred partner of the United States and underwent a massive loss of trust in the special relationship with the U.S.[19] Britain, Denmark, Ireland, and Norway then started to prepare for a trading union, the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). British politicians, such as Labour's George Brown were in 1962 still of opinion, that Britain should not only be allowed to join, but be welcomed to lead the European Union, and met then with ridicule.[6]
In the 1960s the membership attempts of Conservative UK governments faced strong resistance from the Continent, especially from the
French president, Charles de Gaulle.[13] Instead of being offered a leadership role, Britain was put on a yearlong waiting list, a major political humiliation for pro-European Britons. De Gaulle's veto in 1963 was a devastating blow for Harold Macmillan,[7] who, according to Hugo Young, was not the last Tory politician to end his or her career as a result of European affairs. The UK faced a major economic decline and a row of disturbing political scandals as well. The combination did not help much with Europe's image in the UK, and vice versa. With Georges Pompidou replacing de Gaulle, the veto was lifted and negotiations began in 1970 under the pro-European Conservative government of Edward Heath. The question of sovereignty had been discussed at the time in an official document (FCO 30/1048) that became open to the public many years later in January 2002, under the rules for availability after thirty years. It listed among "Areas of policy in which parliamentary freedom to legislate will be affected by entry into the European Communities": Customs duties, Agriculture, Free movement of labour, services and capital, Transport, and Social Security for migrant workers. The document concluded (paragraph 26) that it was advisable to put the considerations of influence and power before those of formal sovereignty.[20] Among disagreements that Heath had to deal were those relating to the Common Agricultural Policy and the remaining relationship with the Commonwealth of Nations. In 1972 the accession treaties were signed with all but Norway.[21]
1975 United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum National result
Choice
Votes
%
Yes
17,378,581
67.23%
No
8,470,073
32.70%
Registered voters and turnout
40,086,677
64.67%
Despite the decision to join the European Community, internal Labour divisions over EEC membership prompted the Labour Party to propose a referendum be held on the permanence of the UK in the Communities. Proposed in 1972 by Tony Benn,[22] Labour's referendum proposal led the anti-EEC Conservative politician Enoch Powell to advocate a Labour vote (initially only inferred) in the February 1974 election,[23] which was thought to have influenced the result, a return to government of the Labour Party. The eventual referendum in 1975 asked the voters:
Do you think the United Kingdom should stay in the European Community (the Common Market)?
British membership of the EEC was endorsed by 67% of those voting, with a turnout of 64.5% and was a major defeat for the anti-marketers at the time with only two of the 68 counting areas returning "No" majority votes.
From 1975 to 1997
Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990, was considered as a symbol of Euroscepticism. She was an opponent of the Maastricht Treaty, which was ratified by the UK in 1993.
The debate between Eurosceptics (known as anti-marketeers until the late 1980s) and EU supporters (known as pro-marketeers until the late 1980s) is ongoing within, rather than between, British political parties, whose membership is of varied standpoints. The two main political parties in Britain, the Conservative Party and the Labour Party, each 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, with more MPs supporting withdrawal than opposing it and only seven out of 46 affiliated trade unions supporting staying in the Common Market.[24][25] The views of many leaders and activists within the party were reflected by Tony Benn, who claimed during the 1975 EEC referendum that unless Britain voted to leave, "half a million jobs lost in Britain and a huge increase in food prices (would be) a direct result of our entry into the Common Market".[25] In 1979, the Labour manifesto[26] declared that a Labour government would "oppose any move towards turning the Community into a federation" and, in 1983,[27] it still favoured British withdrawal from the EEC.
Under the leadership of Neil Kinnock after 1983, the then opposition party dropped its former resistance to the European Communities and instead favoured greater British integration into European Economic and Monetary Union.
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher gained much popularity with the so-called UK rebate in 1984. Britain then managed to reduce its contributions to the Union to a certain extent, as it was then the EU's second poorest member and, without much agriculture, benefited little from farm subsidies.[28]
A speech by
Treaty of Maastricht, enshrining a series of workers' rights into European law.[25] In the context of Thatcher's Conservative premiership, when policies to reduce the power of the trade unions were pursued, Delors' advocacy of a "social Europe" became attractive to many.[30] In 1989, the Labour Party officially dropped support for a withdrawal from the EEC: by 1998, only three per cent of the party's MPs supported leaving the EU.[25]
The UK rebate was also held up by Thatcher's successors as prime minister.[28] Thatcher had worked with Delors in building a single market and supported the Single European Act of 1986, but by 1988 believed that the single market would cause greater political integration which she opposed. That year she warned in the Bruges speech of "a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels".[31] In late October 1990, just before her premiership ended, Thatcher reacted strongly against Delors' plans for a single currency in the House of Commons.[32] Her stance contributed to her downfall a few weeks later,[33] but Thatcher influenced others such as Daniel Hannan, whose Oxford Campaign for an Independent Britain (1990) may be the start of the Brexit campaign.[31]
Role of the Post-Maastricht Blues
The overall acceptance of the European Union in all member states saw a strong increase of support till the 1990s and a major decline afterwards, support sinking to 1980s levels then.[34] Due to the timely connection with the Maastricht Treaty 1992, it has been called the post-Maastricht-Blues.[34][35] The European integration process faced a major defeat with the failed Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe and eurosceptical opinions gained more impact overall. The role of public opinion had been lower before but gained importance with state referendums, as in the rejection of the constitution by French and Dutch voters in 2005.[34]
Since 1997
The financier Sir
United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), advocating the UK's complete withdrawal from the European Union, had been founded in 1993 by Alan Sked, but initially had only very limited success. Due to a change in the election principle, the 1999 European Parliament election allowed for the first UKIP parliamentary representation.[citation needed] Many commentators[who?][36] 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.[citation needed
]
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,
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. Michael Howard's successor David Cameron pledged to remove Conservative MEPs from the EPP Group and this has now been implemented.[citation needed
]
UKIP received 16% of the vote and gained 12 MEPs in the 2004 European Election. The party's results improved in the 2009 UK European Election, coming in second, above the incumbent Labour Party.[37] In the 2014 European Parliament elections UKIP support reached a new high water mark, coming first ahead of the Labour party, and gaining 26.6% of the vote.[citation needed]
"Awkward partner" status
Professor Stephen George states in his 1990 book An Awkward Partner: Britain in the European Community that the UK is an "awkward partner" within the European Union, emphasising that although the UK is not the only EU member state to oppose further EU integration, it is less enthusiastic than most other members.
"special relationship" with the US. Additionally, the UK has not experienced the major political upheavals of continental Europe.[40]
British government officials have often been hostile towards further European integration, supporting intergovernmental cooperation as opposed to supranational authority, and a single market rather than the
national sovereignty, i.e. where ultimate decision-making authority is located in the United Kingdom as a nation state.[40]
The UK has also experienced limited influence in EU negotiations; on key EU policies (e.g. the EMU), British governments have not set the agenda but reacted to proposals from others by attempting to slow the pace of integration, or limit its impact. Although influential in some areas – e.g. the single market and defence – the UK is often in a minority of states opposed to change, and has not developed durable alliances to counter the Franco-German partnership.[40]
Levels of support are lower in the UK than most other member states, as well as having less knowledge about the institution. UK citizens are the least likely to feel a sense of
European identity, and national sovereignty is also seen as more important to British people than that of people from other EU nations, with many major newspapers taking Eurosceptic positions.[40] Cambridge historian David Abulafia states: "The concept of European identity [among British people] arouses puzzlement."[42] Among the many differences is the very different legal tradition European nations have from that of the UK. A product of English history, common law is uncommon among the other members of the EU.[42]
Campaigns for withdrawal
Vote Leave signs in 2016
The two main anti-EU campaigns during the UK referendum on EU membership were
The Grassroots Out campaign launched as of 23 January 2016 in Kettering as a national, cross party with the aim of bringing together all leave groups, founded by Conservative MPs Peter Bone and Tom Pursglove and Labour MP Kate Hoey following in-fighting between Vote Leave and Leave.EU.[46]
Democracy Movement, the UK's largest non-party anti-EU campaign in the years prior to the 2016 EU referendum, highlighted the EU's economic decline, the broad reach of EU regulation, the UK's lack of influence over new EU laws and the EU's plans for further integration.[50]Get Britain Out and the Campaign for an Independent Britain
are similar non-partisan campaigns.
The perceived
supremacy of EU law over national legislation are some of the major objections of British Eurosceptics. The EU is also argued to have a negative financial impact due to rising costs of membership,[51] and an alleged negative impact of EU regulatory burdens on UK business.[citation needed
]
Opponents of the EU have accused its politicians and
Spiro Latsis.[52] The European Court of Auditors reports about the financial planning are among the topics which are often scandalised in the British press.[53]
On 23 June 2016, the United Kingdom EU membership referendum was held, giving support for Britain leaving the European Union by a margin of 51.9% to 48.1%, with slightly over 72% turnout. Subsequently, after Theresa May was appointed Prime Minister, she named three Cabinet ministers with new roles, all Eurosceptics, to negotiate the UK out of the EU: David Davis was appointed Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, Liam Fox was appointed Secretary of State for International Trade and Boris Johnson was appointed Foreign Secretary.[54]
Opinion polling
Main articles:
Opinion polling on the United Kingdom rejoining the European Union (2020–present)
The assessment of attitudes to the European Union and European Parliamentary Election voting intentions is undertaken on a regular basis by a variety of opinion polling organisations, including
here
.
Opinion poll results
Polling on this issue has typically produced narrow majorities in favour of remaining within the EU, although some polls have found the reverse result. According to an Opinium/Observer poll taken on 20 February 2015[update], 51% of the British electorate said they would most likely vote the United Kingdom to leave the European Union if they were offered a referendum, whereas 49% would not (the figures exclude 14% who said they were unsure). These studies also showed that 41% of the electorate view the EU as a positive force overall, whereas 34% saw it as negative,[55] and a study in November 2012[update] showed that while 48% of EU citizens trusted the European Parliament, only 22% of the UK trusted the Parliament.[56]: 110–2 : QA 14.1
Support and opposition for withdrawal from the EU are not evenly distributed among the different age groups: opposition to EU membership is most prevalent among those 60 and older, with a poll from 22–23 March 2015[update] showing that 48% of this age group oppose EU membership. This decreases to 22% among those aged 18–24 (with 56% of 18- to 24-year-olds stating that they would vote for Britain to remain in the EU). Finally, the results of the poll showed some regional variation: support for withdrawal from the EU is lowest in Scotland and London (at 22% and 32% respectively) but reaches 42% in
the Midlands and Wales (the only region polled with a plurality in favour of withdrawal).[57]
The February 2015 study also showed that trust of the UK's relationship with the EU is split along
^ ab"Reuters footage". ITN Source archive. Reuters. 16 December 2005. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 26 January 2013. Blair is under pressure to yield on the rebate won by his predecessor Margaret Thatcher in 1984 to reflect the fact that Britain, then the EU's second poorest member, benefited little from farm subsidies.
^Eichenberg, Richard/ Russell J. Dalton (2007): Post-Maastricht Blues:
The Transformation of Citizen Support for European Integration, 1973–2004, in: Acta Politica 42(2–3), P. 128–152. (quoted in Weßels 2009)
London and New York, 2003. (EU Referendum Edition published by Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, April 2016)
Grob-Fitzgibbon, Benjamin. Continental Drift: Britain and Europe from the End of Empire to the Rise of Euroscepticism (2016) excerpt
Sutcliffe, John B. "The roots and consequences of Euroskepticism: an evaluation of the United Kingdom Independence Party." Geopolitics, History, and International Relations 4.1 (2012): 107–127. online
Spiering, Menno. "British euroscepticism." in Robert Harmsen and Menno Spiering, eds. Euroscepticism. (Brill Rodopi, 2004) pp. 127–149.
![Enoch Powell[58]](/File:Enoch_Powell_6_Allan_Warren.jpg)
![Tony Benn[59]](/File:Tony_Benn2.jpg)
![Margaret Thatcher[60]](/File:Margaret_Thatcher_stock_portrait_(cropped).jpg)
![Nigel Lawson[61]](/File:Nigel_Lawson_006.jpg)
![Michael Portillo[62]](/File:Michael_Portillo_December_2017.jpg)
![Bill Cash[63]](/File:Official_portrait_of_Sir_William_Cash_crop_2.jpg)
![Daniel Hannan[64]](/File:Daniel_Hannan_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg)
![Nigel Farage[65]](/File:Nigel_Farage_(45718080574)_(cropped).jpg)
![Michael Gove[66]](/File:Official_portrait_of_Rt_Hon_Michael_Gove_MP_crop_2.jpg)
![Boris Johnson[67]](/File:Boris_Johnson_official_portrait_(cropped).jpg)
![Priti Patel[68]](/File:Official_portrait_of_Rt_Hon_Priti_Patel_MP_crop_2.jpg)
![Rishi Sunak[69]](/File:Rishi_Sunak_2023.jpg)