The EU Issue: Elite Division and Public Indifference

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Abstract
This chapter traces the evolution of elite and public attitudes towards European integration in Britain, highlighting the contrast between the high salience of the issue to political elites and public indifference. We argue that Britain’s ambivalent relationship with the EU was driven not only by historical contingency, but also by deep and recurring internal divisions within the major political parties. As European countries came together to form the European Communities in the 1950s, British politicians were hesitant about membership. Initially, the Labour Party was most sceptical about membership but also most internally split over the issue of Europe. But by the 1990s, the Conservative Party had become not only the party most opposed to European integration, but also the party most divided over the issue. Drawing on party manifesto data, expert surveys, and public opinion polling, we show how the EU issue repeatedly fractured party unity even as it remained of little interest to most voters. While British political elites were more divided and sceptical about EU membership than their continental counterparts, we argue that the public also expressed a distinctive mix of indifference and latent Euroscepticism. Ultimately, this meant that it was elite-level contestation—rather than public demand—that created the conditions for the 2016 referendum. The referendum then transformed a previously marginal issue for voters into a central axis of political identity and conflict in Britain.

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