Euroscepticism in the United Kingdom is a continuum of belief ranging from the opposition to certain political policies of the European Union (EU) 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.
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 European identity, and national sovereignty is also seen as more important to British people than that of people from other EU nations. Additionally, the United Kingdom was the least integrated EU member state with four 'opt-outs' – the most of any EU member state.
A referendum on the UK's membership of the European Community was held in 1975, with a majority voting in favour of continued membership of the EC (which later evolved into the European Union). A referendum on membership of the EU was held in 2016, with a majority of voters voting to leave the EU.
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 United States, an ideological divide between reverence for continental European refinery and classics and xenophobic sentiment has existed for centuries; however, Euroscepticism is different from the anti-Europeanism more prevalent in American culture.Anti-Europeanism and Euroscepticism in the United States, Patrick Chamorel No 25, EUI-RSCAS Working Papers from European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS) 2004 In the late 19th century, Britain's foreign policy stance of minimal involvement in European affairs was characterised as "splendid isolation".Margaret Macmillan, The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914 (2013) ch 2
The European Unity movement as a political project after 1945 was supported and inspired by British figures such as Winston Churchill who pledged in his 1946 Zurich speech for "a kind of United States of Europe" led by France and Germany but who did not see a need to involve Britain. The ambivalent position of Britain has been described as "wishing to seem to be a major part of Europe without wanting actually to take part". The othering of European unity as a Continental issue and somebody else's problem has been a recurrent theme. 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. 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".Britain in the European Union Today: Third Edition, Duncan Watts, Colin Pilkington, Manchester University Press, 29 November 2005, p.220 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.
After 1945
Britain was urged to join and lead Western Europe in the immediate aftermath of World War II. The American Committee for a United Europe and the European Conference on Federation led by Winston Churchill were among the early endeveaours for European unity with British participation. Churchill also participated in the Hague Congress of 1948, which discussed the future structure and role of a proposed Council of Europe. British governments and political mainstream players, while advocating stronger integration of the Continent, did not intend to take part themselves. Britain never had a strong pro-European movement like the one founded in post-war Germany. During the postwar years up to 1954, the UK was occupied with the decolonisation of its global empire. It was not among the six founding member states of the European Communities in the early-1950s (described as the "Inner Six"). The six member states signed the Treaty of Paris, creating the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), on 18 April 1951; but failed to create a European Defence Community.
Whilst after the war Churchill was an early supporter of pan-EuropeanismJenkins, p. 810 and p. 819-14how can this be 819-14? and called for a "United States of Europe" and the creation of a "Council of Europe", 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.
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.Culture of Fascism: Visions of the Far Right in Britain, Julie V. Gottlieb, Thomas P. Linehan.B.Tauris, 31 December 2003, p.75DRÁBIK, Jakub. Oswald Mosley´s Concept of a United Europe. A Contribution to the Study of Pan-European Nationalism. In. The Twentieth Century, 2/2012, s. 53–65, Prague : Charles University in Prague, The British elites did not assume Britain should or could take part as a simple member in the European communities at that time.Drawn into the Heart of Europe?: Die britische Europapolitik im Spiegel von Karikaturen (1973–2008), Julia Quante, LIT Verlag Münster, 2013 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, but rather on political philosophy. 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.From common market to European Union building, Michael Gehler, Böhlau Verlag Wien, 2009
The Labour Party leader Hugh Gaitskell once declared that joining the European Economic Community (EEC) would mean "the end of a thousand years of history". Some Gaitskellites (including the later founders of the Social Democratic Party), were favourable to British involvement. Labour later moved from its opposition towards the European Community and began to support membership. Important groups of Conservatives also opposed joining the Common Market. One of the earliest groups formed against British involvement in Europe was the Conservative Party-based 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". 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. The Trades Union Congress remains strongly pro-EU.
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.Pax Anglo-Americana, Ursula Lehmkuhl, Oldenbourg 1999, p.236 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.
In the 1960s, the membership attempts of Conservative UK governments faced strong resistance from the Continent, especially from the French president, Charles de Gaulle. 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,This Blessed Plot: Britain and Europe from Churchill to Blair, Hugo Young, Overlook Press, 1998 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.FCO 30/1048, Legal and constitutional implications of UK entry into EEC (open from 1 January 2002). 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.See 1972 Norwegian European Communities membership referendum
Admission and 1975 EC membership referendum
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, 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,Simon Heffer Like the Roman: The Life of Enoch Powell, London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998, p.707-10 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
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.