Nearly 25 years after the Maastricht treaty came into fruition which created the modern European Union as it's known today the UK decides whether to remain or leave the EU. Prior to the European Union (EU) it was known as the European Economic Community or the EEC. In the UK throughout the 1980's the british Labour party were skeptical and in some quarters openly hostile to the EEC, but the other major parties were broadly big supporters of the community. After the 1987 UK general election where Margret Thatcher led the Conservatives to a third successive election victory is where things started to take a turn for the worse with it's relationship with the EEC.
By 1988 the then EEC President Jacque Delors outlined the future of the ECC creating something called "Social Europe" where there was a great emphasis on workers rights. In addition "The single European" act which came into existence in January 1987 outlined the blue print for the "single market" and the foundation for the Federal Union. Thatcher who was a big supporter of supply-side economics believed that the trade unions and workers rights groups were an impediment to economic growth. In a speech labeled "the Bruges Speech" in 1988 said that all the work of rolling back the state in the UK would be undermined and even scaled back by regulation from Brussels; it would be "socialism through the back Delores". Thatcher was also opposed to the idea of a Federal Union with a single currency and the free movement of people. Within two years Thatcher was ousted as party leader and consequently John Major became the new PM and negotiated the Maastricht treaty in 1991 where for the first time EU flag was unveiled.
After Maastricht was negotiated the United Kingdom Independent Party (UKIP) was formed which was hostile to the idea of a Federal Europe. Amongst other grievances demanded that there should be a national referendum for the UK for the people to have a say. During the next couple of years, what was significant was the shift by the british Labour party who after years being cool to EEC membership changed tact and became an enthusiastic supporter of membership of the EU. By 1994 after losing four elections in a row, the new Labour leader Tony Blair still in opposition, became a big supporter of the European project as were the Liberal Democrats who also supported the idea of enlargement and greater integration. By the mid 1990's it was only some in the Conservative party who had reservations to the "Greater European Project". This was followed up with an astounding election victory for Blairs Labour party in 1997 and was followed up by another victory four years later in 2001
By 2002 with new members admitted into the EU and the introduction of the single European currency, the Conservative party who had now suffered two heavy election defeats in a row were now split on the way forward. It wasn't until another election defeat in 2005 that new leader David Cameron fully embraced the greater European idea. At this point it was apparent that all three major political parties in Britain were all on board and all they were all recruiting officials, researchers and potential parliamentary candidates who were supporters of UK membership in the EU - with only just a few high profile MP's in the Conservative party questioning EU membership. The EU's ambitions for enlargement and greater integration was a far cry from the original concept of free trade with western European countries . EU membership was now running close to 30 countries and the expansion seems to have no end with Ukraine and Georgia also being considered for future membership. At the very time when the EU was embarking on a very ambitious project there was very little opposition to this in Westminster which may have been a major mistake.
EU itself demanded more authority over the member states with directives overriding national laws and at an increasing rate EU law taking precedent without any debate within the member states. There is a serious downside to this that local democracy is ridden roughshod over by an increasingly ambitious EU executive and Judiciary but with no legislative power in Brussels to block or obstruct. So during these years both the Conservative government under John Major and Labour government under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown all ignored calls for a national referendum over Europe.
The election in 2015 where although the Conservatives won a very narrow working majority of 12 seats, they were still stuck on 36-37% of the national vote. Ironically it was Nick Cleggs Liberal Democrats who were the Conservatives coalition partners in the previous government who were wiped out, with Labour being the biggest benefactors of their collapse. In the case of UKIP under the leadership of Nigel Farage they jumped from 3% of the vote in 2010 to nearly 13% of the vote in 2015. The Conservative party whose support was hemorrhaging because of the rise in UKIP's popularity announced that there would be a referendum the following year on the UK's membership of the EU. The Conservatives bet that a public endorsement to remain in the EU would achieve two things. Firstly a vote to remain would settle matters once and for all, and secondly it would take the legs away from UKIP as a viable political party in Britain where it was expected that most of their voters would return to the Conservatives.
Although the polls were close leading up to the vote, the remain campaign was consistently ahead, however by the early hours of the morning it became apparent that the Conservative gamble hadn't paid off and the result was 48% remain and 52% leave - a reverse of what the polls had been saying and stunned the establishment to the core. Earlier it was mentioned that for the EU to expand and integrate at a greater rate but without serious opposition in London was probably a mistake. This approach only reinforced the view that the political class in London were clearly out of step of what the public thought. The intention of the referendum offered by the government was for it to under right the EU project not for it to be rejected by the electorate, a serious miscalculation by the government. This all came about because there was never any serious discussion about the wisdom of a massive enlargement of the EU. The result of all this was months and years of political upheaval in the UK as Westminster wasn't capable of dealing with a mass rejection of it's ideas.
As for the political casualties, PM David Cameron resigned and (although he made a brief comeback as foreign secretary in 2023) ended up in the House of Lords. Nick Clegg who had resigned as Liberal leader after 2015 eventually lost his parliamentary seat in 2017 and ended up in the USA on a seven-figure salary doing something for Facebook - (great work if you can get it). Nigel Farage dropped out of politics for a while but came back forming the Brexit party and after the UK left the EU, formed Reform UK party whereas leader he got elected to the house of commons last year.
