EU Membership and its divisive effect upon British Party Politics.
European Union (EU) membership has long been a significant cause of tension and division within British politics. Since the UK joined the EU in 1973, there has been a significant division between major political parties, with a range of clashing opinions regarding many aspects of membership. These tensions have since heightened as a result of the 2016 referendum on whether Britain should 'remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union'. Throughout the campaigning period many parties made clear their desired outcome of the referendum and the future of Britain; with their stance often being influenced by their intrinsic party values. When taken to the polls, it was decided by a 51.9% majority of the electorate that Britain would revoke its membership and exit out of the European Union, causing havoc amongst political parties. The aim of this essay is to analyse the significance that EU membership had in terms of dividing parties both internally and between each other.
The European Union membership referendum occurred under the leadership of David Cameron and his Conservative party government. Once the leading force behind joining the union, growing euroscepticism, especially during the Thatcher era, has become a defining characteristic of the party. Originally, this distrust in the union was built around four main issues; the capitalist nature of the EU, the disadvantages that the union, as an institution, forced upon poorer countries, membership of the EU being a betrayal of the prior formed Commonwealth and that the cost of membership was “draining money from Britain” (Saunders, R. 2016, pg 318). In the 2016 referendum, 138 Conservative MP’s made clear their intention to vote to leave the EU, the largest amount of MP’s from one party to back the campaign- however this was not the stance of David Cameron, leader of the remain campaign or 184 other Tory MP’s. This almost equal split in voting intentions directly contributed to the significant inter-party division caused by EU membership as, despite a more significant amount of support for the remain campaign, the party was branded as a "Leave" supporter. However, since Theresa May took over Cameron’s position as Prime Minister post referendum, all Conservative MP’s, bar one, are in full support of ‘Brexit’ and voted to activate Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. Though May was a supporter of the remain campaign, she has since stated that “Brexit means Brexit”. The Conservatives are not the only party which has shown significant support for terminating Britain’s membership of the EU; UKIP and Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party were both fully committed to making sure that Britain would no longer be an EU member. However, despite these three parties sharing the same ‘Leave’ stance, there are still signs of tension between them- especially between UKIP and the Conservatives. In their 2017 General Election manifesto, UKIP celebrated the win of the Leave campaign, but used it as a chance to highlight their perceived downfalls of Theresa May’s government in dealing with the Brexit negotiations, claiming that “Theresa May should not be allowing the EU to influence how, when, and on what terms we leave.” (UKIP, 2017, pg 6). UKIP not only had different ideas of how dealing with the withdrawal process should occur, but also had distinctive motivations for leaving the EU to begin with. They believed that the most significant issues facing Britain, via EU membership, were immigration and border control whilst the Tories had more economic motivations for withdrawing membership. This shows a significant divide, even between the branded “Leave” parties, as even though they shared opinions on the same preferred outcome, they were not unified by one resounding motive but rather focused upon their individual party values and manifesto promise which they claimed to be “national interest”.
Historically, the Labour Party has held conflicting opinions upon Britain's status as an EU member, shifting from a position of hostility to one of almost full support; this continuous fluctuation in stance has lasted for over half a decade, cause significant rifts within the party (Daniels, P. 1998, pg 72). Most recently, Labour campaigned to remain part of the European Union under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. After winning a landslide victory to become Labour leader in 2015, it was expected that Corbyn would successfully unify and lead his party in supporting the remain campaign; however, his weak and unclear line of reasoning proved to have divisive implications upon his party throughout campaigning process. Some of his MP’s contended that Corbyn “failed to demonstrate leadership and communicate a compelling case for why Britain should remain in the EU”. This line of argument was solidified as polls showed that almost one in every two people who identified as Labour voters were not aware that the party was campaigning for Britain to remain an EU member. (Goodwin, M. and Heath, O. 2016, pg 234). It was said by Labour member Lord Mandleson that: “It was very difficult to know what Jeremy Corbyn's motives were."(Mandleson, P. 2016). It has also been considered that Corbyn was hesitant to pledge support to the remain campaign as it meant publicly sharring the same stance as his main opposition figure, David Cameron (McSmith, A. 2016). Jeremy Corbyn has been known to oppose the UK's membership of the EU, hence providing a possible explanation to the confusion of Labour MP's and voters alike. This confusion significantly contributed to creating such an intense inter-party division within the Labour party. However, when asked how many MP's intended to vote in favour of leave, only 10 MP's did so, with the other 218 pledging support to the remain campaign. While this statistic suggests a more unified party by the end of the campaign, it does go to show significant division between the Conservative party and Labour, with an almost split in intentions for Tory MP's and an almost collective response from Labour MP's. It has been thought that this intra-party division carried social implications amongst the electorate, with those who identify as being on the "Conservative spectrum" pledging support for the 'Leave' campaign (Goodwin, M & Heath, O, 2016, pg. 234) , despite the campaigns for both 'leave' and 'remain' were delivered by MP's from a manner of different political parties.
Arguably, the Liberal Democrats took the one of the strongest pro-EU membership stances of many parties during the campaigning period. Brexit was the main focus of their 2017 General Election manifesto, claiming that they "passionately believe that Britain’s relationship with its neighbours is stronger as part of the European Union" . The campaign prioritised their belief that Britain should remain a member of the single market, that the rights of citizens, both British and European should be protected and that they should be allowed to move between EU countries (Liberal Democrats, 2017, pg 10). Prior to the election, all eight Lib Dem MP's at the time vowed to vote 'Remain', and again, all nine voted against triggering Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty. The Liberal Democrats unified approach towards the Brexit referendum was a rare sight to see during a campaign of such large, harsh divisions. While this may seem to contradict the claim that EU membership was significantly divisive, their firm and unfaltering stance set them apart and widened the distance between the Liberal Democrats and other British parties; after the referendum many parties took a similar stance to that of Theresa May- that the repercussions of the Leave vote must be accepted, however the Lib Dems challenged this attitude.
Overal
l, when considering the argument of this essay, it can be said that EU membership did significantly divide British political parties in numerous ways; for example, the unclear and unorganised leadership of Jeremy Corbyn and the turbulent impact that it carried through his party- with a lack of definite direction and unity when moving towards a referendum that carried enormous weight in deciding future of Britain's relationship with the European Union. Furthermore, intra-party conflicts also caused significant division between parties, like that of the friction seen between The Conservatives and UKIP, both generally in favour of the same outcome, but with clashing motives behind their reasonings. Despite some parties taking a concurrent stance in terms of EU membership, the impacts of divisions and tensions carry a much deeper impact in terms of British politics- influencing the electorate in General Elections and causing bitter rifts amongst MP's. Not much can be predicted of the outcome of Brexit, but it is known that the divides that opinion over EU membership have caused will have significant repercussions in the future of British politics.