Vic Feather, the former general secretary of the TUC, told voters bluntly that “If we go it alone we will be knackered”. We consider why 51.89% of the population voted to leave the EU, including concerns over immigration, misinformation, nostalgia and the weak remain campaign. There are now 28 members of the EU, all who have to fulfil strict criteria, Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). He is the author of Democracy and the Vote in British Politics (Farnham, 2011) and co-editor, with Ben Jackson, of Making Thatcher’s Britain (Cambridge, 2012). Writing ahead of the 2016 vote, historian Robert Saunders looked back at the first UK-wide referendum, held in 1975 on the United Kingdom's continued membership of the European Economic Community (EEC), and considers what we can learn from its outcome... On 4 June 1975, just hours before the polls opened in Britain’s first national referendum, two men in top hats and tails fought a duel in St James’s Park. The UK joined the EEC without a popular vote in 1973 under Conservative Prime Minister Ted Heath. Following the 2016 Referendum, the UK Parliament triggered Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, a process required for a member to leave the Union. 679215 Registered office: 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF. No democracy had ever survived inflation at that level for a prolonged period of time, and the disintegration of parliamentary government in Northern Ireland increased the sense of impending doom. To hold his party together, the new prime minister, Harold Wilson, made a twofold promise: he would renegotiate the terms of membership, then put them to the people in a referendum. “Nationalism Kills”, one poster declared. We pay for your stories! Newspapers like The Sun, The Daily Mail and The Daily Express, which would later become fiercely Eurosceptic, all campaigned to keep Britain in Europe. Simon Jenkins and Kathleen Burk on the history of Europe. ‘In’ campaigners warned that withdrawal would trigger the collapse of the currency, a public spending crisis and massive job losses, while Ted Heath predicted the return of rationing. Men like Ted Heath, Willie Whitelaw, Tony Benn and Enoch Powell had all seen military service, and the prospects for peace weighed heavily on the campaign. This service is provided on News Group Newspapers' Limited's Standard Terms and Conditions in accordance with our Privacy & Cookie Policy. Is the UK a democracy? The geography of Euroscepticism was also very different. The problem was that these were all quite controversial figures – the so-called “men with staring eyes” – encouraging an association between the ‘Out’ campaign and political extremism. Post Brexit, Britain is more Eurosceptic than ever *Data collected between July and November 2016 Maastricht treaty 1992 UK votes to leave the EU* 2016 EU bans export of British beef 1996 Euro introduced 1999 Schengen agreement introduced 1994 Ten new countries in Eastern and Central Europe join the EU … The Daily Express published a celebratory editorial, announcing that the British had declared themselves “decisively” and “irrevocably” European. Thank you for subscribing to HistoryExtra, you now have unlimited access. The emphasis on risk probably resonated more in 1975 than in 2016, because it connected with people’s experience. These are: No member state has yet left the EU, though Greenland (an autonomous province of Denmark) withdrew in 1985. https://voxeu.org/article/britain-s-eu-membership-new-insight-economic-history You will shortly receive a receipt for your purchase via email. They assembled a galaxy of actors, sports stars and celebrities, such as the boxer Henry Cooper, the Olympic gold medallist Mary Peters and the former England cricket captain Colin Cowdrey. The result of the 1975 referendum was a landslide. The Brexit negotiations began in 2017 and the UK left the EU on 31 January 2020. Following the oil crisis of 1973, inflation was running at close to 25 per cent; a balance of payments crisis was placing intense strain on the currency, while labour relations were deteriorating rapidly. Then-PM Edward Heath said the ceremony marked … To inquire about a licence to reproduce material, visit our Syndication site. Thanks! Different issues also predominated. It did not stop parliamentary rebellions by Eurosceptic MPs, while EU leaders found a way to sign the treaty despite the UK veto. Other issues discussed at the time related to security, European funding for UK industries and regions, and aid to developing countries. The UK's relationship with Europe has never been simple nor static. Email us at tips@the-sun.co.uk or call 0207 782 4368 . On 23 June 2016, Britain voted to leave the European Union. The vote on 23 June 2016 will almost certainly be closer than in 1975, but its consequences – whatever the result – will be no less momentous. Britain joined the EEC in 1973, the same year as Denmark and Ireland. After the results were declared, Harold Wilson told journalists that “fourteen years of national debate” had come to an end. He is completing a book on the 1975 referendum and blogs at www.gladstonediaries.blogspot.com, This article was first published by History Extra in June 2016. The decision to join the EEC was taken by Edward Heath’s government in 1973, but Labour’s manifesto promised a referendum on Britain’s ongoing membership. Immigration was barely mentioned in 1975: at a time when Britain was seen as “the sick man of Europe”, nobody thought that German and French workers were anxious to come and work in the UK. The UK was twice blocked from joining the EEC during the 60s by France's Charles de Gaulle. Obviously both have changed and will continue to change. Britain voted by a margin of two-to-one to stay in the European Economic Community, as the EU was then known, in a 1975 referendum. Many constitutional experts believe that Britain isn't actually a member of the European Union since our apparent entry was in violation of British … Fifty-two per cent of the country votes in favour of leaving Its new leader, Margaret Thatcher, called for “a massive Yes” to Europe, and stumped the country in a woolly jumper made up of the flags of the member states. And yet another reminded voters that “Forty million people died in two European wars this century. While the Trade Union Congress backed withdrawal, major unions like the GMB broke ranks and fought to stay in. Of the bloc's 28 member countries, Croatia was the last one to join, back in 2013. Please enter your number below. Was Britain Taken Into The EU Illegally? Membership has affected everything from trade policy and the legal system to gay rights and the Northern Ireland peace process. ‘Out’ campaigners replied that it was membership that was draining the life from the economy. 1973. When did Britain decide to join the European Union? Membership was backed by the Confederation of British Industry, the National Farmers Union and the mainstream churches, while supermarket chains like Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer advocated membership in their customer magazines. Robert Saunders is a lecturer in modern British history at Queen Mary University of London. The ‘Out’ campaign had some big hitters of their own, such as Tony Benn, Barbara Castle, Ian Paisley and Enoch Powell. After two failed attempts in the 1960s, success was finally achieved by the Conservative government of Ted Heath, who had come to power in 1970 promising “nothing less” than “to change the course of history of this nation”. You can unsubscribe at any time. Britain has been part of a club of countries called the European Union, or EU, since 1973.. It was an offer that David Cameron would repeat more than four decades later. You can WhatsApp us on 07810 791 502. From 1970 to 1974, more than 70 million working days were lost in strikes, culminating in the collapse of the Heath government during its struggle with the miners. A second bid was blocked by de Gaulle in 1967, but was ultimately approved in 1969 after he lost power and the UK joined in 1973. The Cold War was omnipresent in the politics of the 1970s, and the same newspapers that reported the referendum were also carrying the fall of Saigon and the defeat of American power in Vietnam. The UK first applied to join the EU in 1961. This wasn’t presented just as a trade agreement. Although the Brexit referendum was non-binding, then-Prime Minister David Cameron’s government, expecting a vote in favor of “Remain,” had promised to honour the result. ‘Anti-marketeers’ were more worried about outward migration, with young Britons forced to seek work on the continent. The British government has voted against EU laws 2% of the time since 1999. When the Heath government fell in 1974 it was replaced by a Labour administration that was bitterly divided on Europe. The government gave each side a grant of £125,000, on top of which they could raise whatever money they pleased. LEAVING'S never easy - and that's certainly the case for Britain trying to extract itself from the EU. In 1975 the UK held a referendum on continued membership of the European Community. Common rules remained during the UK's transition period until January 2021. The UK is now set to leave Europe by March 29, 2019 - if Parliament and the EU are able to agree on a divorce deal. Britain found a way in after de Gaulle resigned in 1969. In 2016, Nicola Sturgeon has become a key figure in the Remain campaign; in 1975, a young Alex Salmond warned that “Scotland knows from bitter experience what treatment is in store for a powerless region of a common market”. On 23 June 2016, Britain voted to leave the European Union. Brexit Facts4eu.Org Turns The Spotlight on Scotland, One Day Early Tony Benn claimed that 500,000 jobs had been lost in the first two years of membership. If you subscribe to BBC History Magazine Print or Digital Editions then you can unlock 10 years’ worth of archived history material fully searchable by Topic, Location, Period and Person. This mismatch was reflected in the accounts of the two campaigns. In this respect, the political commentator Anthony King was right to list the 1975 referendum among the most important decisions in British history since 1945. Just eight years later, Wilson’s own party would run for election on a promise to withdraw from the European Community. Based on data from our 2018 survey we look at the real reasons behind why the UK voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum. It wasn't until 1992 that the European Union was officially formed, with Britain's membership coming into force in November 1993. 1975, it is worth remembering, was closer in time to the end of the First World War than we are today to the Second. On Friday 6 June 1975 at 18:30 BST the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, gave his reaction outside 10 Downing Street as counting continued, although by this point the result was clear: Meanwhile, the big battalions of British society were all for staying in. To become part of the union, a country has to meet the Cophenhagen criteria - defined at the 1993 meeting of the European Council which took place in the Danish capital. For good or for ill, British history since that date has been closely intertwined with the European Union. Deny the UK public a vote on joining, because it was known from research that they would have said no. The big question: Has the European Union been a success? On a 64.5 per cent turnout, more than two-thirds of voters opted to stay in. The official website for BBC History Magazine and BBC History Revealed, Save up to 50% on a BBC History Magazine or BBC History Revealed subscription. Business support for leaving was almost non-existent. jhh. For further details of our complaints policy and to make a complaint please click this link: thesun.co.uk/editorial-complaints/. Everything you ever wanted to know about... Podcast: Brexit and American independence. To understand why Britain became so opposed to migration from the EU, it’s key to understand a decision made by the Labour government in … “No More Civil Wars”, said another. Whilst the UK officially joined the EEC in 1973, the old arguments over sovereignty remained. The foreign secretary, Jim Callaghan, put it more gloomily, telling the cabinet that “every morning when he shaved he thought that he should emigrate, but by the time he had eaten breakfast, he realised there was nowhere else to go… There was no solution that he could see to our problems”. And it is still happening. You're now subscribed to our newsletter. In 1975 it was the Conservative Party that was most enthusiastically supportive of membership. The European Communities Bill was then introduced in the House of Commons to give parliamentary assent to Britain's membership of the EEC. But when did the UK join the megastate in the first place? This was also an important issue for the churches: The Church of England Newspaper told its readers that “if Christians are anti-Marxist, they should support an alliance that is anti-Marxist”. This only reveals the hysterical elitism of some Remainers, who are accustomed to getting their own way and are horrified that, for the first time in decades, ordinary people might have a decisive say in how Britain is governed. Britain votes to leave the European Union - 23 June 2016 A referendum is held on Britain's membership of the European Union. It was only in 1969 that the green light was given to negotiations for British membership, with talks starting in 1970. Football managers Brian Clough, Sir Matt Busby and Jock Stein sent messages of support to campaign rallies, while novelists as diverse as Agatha Christie, Karl Popper and Tom Stoppard signed adverts in the press. Every part of the United Kingdom voted for membership, save only for Shetland and the Western Isles [the electoral district which includes the Hebrides]. The move came after President de Gaulle of France twice blocked UK membership during the 1960s. The campaign for withdrawal was dominated by the Labour left, under the charismatic leadership of the secretary of state for industry, Tony Benn. Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? The Community is, and needs to be, an evolving institution. Private polling in May 1975 found that more than half of voters expected “an immediate economic and political crisis” in the event of a decision to withdraw – a conviction that strongly favoured a Yes vote. No, but the UK did hold a referendum on whether to remain a member of the European Community in 1975. We pay for videos too. Better lose a little national sovereignty than a son or daughter”. Conversely, questions about food, fishing and the Common Agricultural Policy loomed considerably larger for a generation that could remember post-war rationing. Historians debate. They were there as representatives of the Eldon League, a student dining club whose motto was ‘forwards into the past’, to settle the question of British membership of the European Community. After parliament voted to trigger Article 50 and kick off negotiations with the EU, Donald Tusk, the European council president, confirmed he had … Ten West European nations (not including West Germany) created the Council of Europe in 1949, the first step towards political co-operation between them, but some countries wanted to go further. The final days of Anne Boleyn: why did she die? Hancock reveals thousands will get Covid booster jabs in world-first trials, A million Brits could have benefit payments stopped unless they act now. "The Sun", "Sun", "Sun Online" are registered trademarks or trade names of News Group Newspapers Limited. Every national newspaper backed a vote to stay in, save only for The Spectator and The Morning Star. Official EU voting records* show that the British government has voted ‘No’ to laws passed at EU level on 56 occasions, abstained 70 times, and voted ‘Yes’ 2,466 times since 1999, according to UK in a Changing Europe Fellows Sara Hagemann and Simon Hix. The six founding countries were Belgium, France, West Germany, Italy Save 50% on your favourite history magazine! When did UK join eec? Save a huge 50% when you subscribe including free UK delivery! Here's what we know about when the volatile affair with Europe began. Click here to upload yours. In 2004, Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland, Malta, Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary, Estonia, Czechia and Cyprus were admitted. Right from the start of the EU Britain has been used by both America and France. You have successfully linked your account! How many of … Since 17.4 million Britons voted to leave the EU in June 2016, they have been persistently slandered as dupes, xenophobes or worse. Yet the decision made on 5 June 1975 had a lasting impact. Right from the start, the 1975 referendum pitted two very unequal armies against one another. s came to the UK from both inside and outside the EU and an additional 333,000arrived in the UK in 2016. One temptation should be avoided – to seek, month after … Voting has closed in the UK to elect a new cohort of MEPs to the European Parliament. There are three directives they have to prove before the European Council will open negotiations. History quiz: how much do you know about Tudor Queen Elizabeth I? As the heavens thundered to the roar of champagne corks, a lucky shot blew one man’s top hat clean from his shoulders. The EU would not be assessing the UK which applied 50 years ago. Princess Beatrice reveals she’s PREGNANT… and is timing a dig at Harry & Meghan? There seems to be a problem, please try again. Britain had joined the European Economic Community – or the Common Market, as it was widely known – on 1 January 1973. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_the_vote_in_favour_of_Brexit The ‘Out’ campaign raised £8,000 plus contributions in kind from some of the unions. EU referendum: how significant is Britain’s vote to leave? The Netherlands also went to the polls on Thursday with the 26 other EU … His opponent, a young lawyer and Conservative activist named Neil Hamilton, was declared victorious, and it was at once agreed that the League would oppose British membership. Naomi Campbell seen without bump 3 weeks before baby news amid surrogacy claims, ©News Group Newspapers Limited in England No. Voters were encouraged to think of the Community as “the Common Super-market”: “Well stocked shelves”; “Plenty of choice”; and “just around the corner”. In 1975, a referendum was held on whether the UK should stay in the EEC under different terms of entry. The United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar to ask the electorate whether the country should … The original members of what came to be known as the European Communities were the Inner Six: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany. To see all content on The Sun, please use the Site Map. In 1975, a referendum was held on whether the UK should stay in the EEC under different terms of entry. News Corp is a network of leading companies in the worlds of diversified media, news, education, and information services. The ‘In’ campaign could call on almost all the leading figures in British politics – from Harold Wilson, Roy Jenkins and Shirley Williams on the left, to Ted Heath, Margaret Thatcher and Willie Whitelaw on the right. This application was vetoed by the French government in 1963 and a second application was vetoed, again by the French, in 1967. There are a lot of French farmers, and they have always been a powerful voting block. Staying in, he predicted, would decimate manufacturing and inflict mass unemployment across the country. In those days the entity was primarily an economic union. It did not help in this respect that the IRA, the National Front and the Communist Party of Great Britain all advocated a vote to leave. Britain decides: the first European referendum. Britain, late to join the EU, will be the first member state to leave it, with the exit date set for March 2019. Throughout the referendum, The Sun ran the strapline ‘Crisis Britain’ above its news pages. The public voted ‘Yes’ by 67.2 to 32.8 per cent to stay in Europe. “What had been made out to be the most doubting and hesitant member of the Common Market has shown that it means business”. The 1951 Treaty of Paris created the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), which began to unite European countries economically and politically in order to secure lasting peace, after two world wars had started in Europe in the first half of the century. In 1975 it was England – especially the south of England – that was most staunchly European. This was a wartime election in another sense, too. Heath claimed that a vote to leave, by weakening the cohesion of Western Europe, might trigger a Soviet invasion, pointing out that the USSR was the only major power to favour British withdrawal. Britain has been a part of the EU for more than 40 years - but for how much longer? On 22 January 1972, the UK signed the Treaty of Accession in Brussels, and joined the EEC the following year. Naturally, he really wanted Britain to join the Market in order to help pay for the costs of running the CAP and keeping French farmers satisfied. View our online Press Pack. Joining the EEC was central to that ambition; yet his achievement was almost throttled at birth. Tory PM Edward Heath took the UK into the European Economic Area in January 1973. The ‘In’ campaign raised more than £2 million. The Sun website is regulated by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO), Our journalists strive for accuracy but on occasion we make mistakes. A mixture of economic decline and Britain’s … For a generation that had lived through rationing, seen oil prices quadruple in 1973 and queued for sugar in 1974, the prospect of economic catastrophe was not something abstract. As our own referendum makes clear, that prediction was hopelessly optimistic. Before a hushed and anxious crowd, the two champions paced out the ground, turned and opened fire – not with pistols, but with champagne bottles handed to them by their seconds. In a referendum, held on 23 June 2016, the majority of adult Britons voted to leave the EU. This competition is now closed The Treaty was signed by Edward Heath, the British Prime Minister, in Brussels on 22 January 1972. Britain Joins the European Economic Community. De Gaulle had feared British membership would weaken the French voice within Europe, and that the US-UK relationship would strengthen America's influence. Historians debate, How significant is Scotland’s ‘No’ vote? With all the major newspapers backing membership, the wonder was not that the anti-marketeers lost; it was that they put up a viable challenge at all. 1 January 1973: Britain joins the EEC. As the US struggled with the scandal over Watergate, the impeachment of President Nixon and the backlash against the Civil Rights movement, Wilson told the Cabinet bluntly that American leadership had gone; in future, Western Europe would have to rely increasingly on its own resources against the Soviet Union. Tony Benn wrote in his diary in December 1974 that “the final collapse of capitalism might be a matter of weeks away”. It was preceded by Bulgaria and Romania in 2007. Comparing the referendums of 1975 and 2016 reminds us just how fundamentally British politics had changed in the meantime. A recurrent theme of the campaign in the 1970s was the memory of war. A recurring image in cartoons portrayed Britain as a sinking ship, with the great ocean liner of the European Community offering the only hope of rescue. Over the next four-and-a-half decades, the membership swelled to 28 member states. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were much more sceptical; indeed, the nightmare for Unionists was that England would vote to stay in, while the rest of the UK voted to leave. As part of Labour’s 1974 election campaign, it promised a renegotiation of EEC membership, followed by a referendum by public vote over whether or not the UK would remain a part of the European Economic Community. By entering your details, you are agreeing to HistoryExtra terms and conditions and privacy policy. What did the UK join in 1973? Britain would have to not only accept the free movement of people and contributions to the EU budget, but also actively vote to resurrect these politically toxic realities of EU membership. The UK joined the European Economic Community in 1973 but the question of membership was not then put to a popular vote (instead it was decided in Parliament). Companies like IBM, ICI, Vickers and even Ladybird books campaigned for a Yes vote, canvassing their workers, shareholders and customers. Britain will be given four votes within the council, which proposes policies on issues ranging from the environment to public health. Both sides in the referendum invoked this atmosphere of doom. For other inquiries, Contact Us. Margaret Thatcher warned of food shortages if Britain withdrew from the EEC, insisting that “most housewives would rather pay a little more than risk a bare cupboard”. British voters have backed the UK's continued membership of the European Economic Community by a large majority in the country's first nationwide referendum. The public voted ‘Yes’ by 67.2 to 32.8 per cent to stay in Europe.
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