The Great Faultline: Europe and the Conservatives

Abstract

This chapter looks at how membership of the EU tore the Conservative Party apart following Margaret Thatcher’s resignation in 1990. The fateful decision by David Cameron to hold a referendum into whether the UK should remain in the EU was inspired primarily by two festering issues: the historic divide within the Conservative Party over Europe stretching back to the 1980s and the creation of the single European currency which accelerated, in the eyes of its critics, the drive by Brussels towards ‘ever closer union’ and even federalism. Cameron hoped to end the controversy by ensuring a referendum vote by the British public to remain in the EU.