World economy

Setting the scene: Britain’s decision to leave the EU

the form of an in–out referendum. While Wilson’s renegotiation was not substantial, and served principally to confuse and irritate other European leaders in Brussels, the result proved sufficient to secure the support of the Labour Cabinet and, subsequently, for Wilson to obtain a majority of 67.23 per cent in favour of remaining in the EEC in the referendum, held on 6 June 1975. The campaign itself demonstrated splits within both major parties, Labour and Conservative, although both party leaders – Harold Wilson and Margaret Thatcher – campaigned to remain in the Common Market. Whilst Labour opponents regarded the EEC as a capitalist project designed to weaken the bargaining power of labour and undermine domestic protection, Conservative sceptics emphasised the threat to national sovereignty and the challenge to British identity posed by European integration.