Introduction

In 1983, the Conservatives remained the party of Europe, almost without exception dedicated to continued and deepened membership. Indeed, it was the Tories who fought and won the election of that year in defence of that idea and in opposition to a Labour Party determined to take the UK out of the EEC. Within a decade, the Tories had become a party defined by violent disagreement over Europe. The term ‘Eurosceptic’ was in common use and was synonymous with a substantial body of Conservative opinion. How did this change come about?

The explanation lies within the tension to which Thatcher referred in her Bruges speech, quoted above. Thatcherism had, by 1988, conquered almost all in the domestic sphere. British social democracy was in tatters. Thatcher's concern was that the UK's involvement within the EEC might partially reverse this process. In expressing this concern in 1988, Thatcher was relatively isolated within her party, and this isolation contributed to her downfall in 1990. However, within a few years this view had gained ground, and by the mid-1990s it was the pro-Europeans, such as Kenneth Clarke and Michael Heseltine, who were isolated. Euroscepticism became the default Conservative position.

To understand these developments, the period from 1983 to 2005 can usefully be divided into four sub-periods. The first is from 1983 to 1987, during which the UK under Thatcher appeared to move in a pro-European direction. The second runs from 1987 to 1990, when Thatcher and her most loyal lieutenants turned against Europe. The third period is from the fall of Thatcher in 1990 to the emphatic defeat of the Conservatives in 1997, a time when the party became increasingly defined by its hostile, and bitterly divided, attitude to Europe. Finally, from 1997 onwards, the Tories became the party not of Europe but of Euroscepticism.