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The Uneasy Relationship

Populists in the 1975 European referendum paved the way for Vote Leave’s Brexit victory

In the second of our five-part series on Britain’s often reluctant role on the European stage, Sean O'Grady examines how the losers of the In/Out vote 45 years ago bequeathed some useful lessons to 2016’s Leavers

Monday 17 February 2020 13:47 GMT
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Britain voted 67 per cent in favour of remaining in the EEC 45 years ago
Britain voted 67 per cent in favour of remaining in the EEC 45 years ago

As we’ve been reminded in recent weeks, a political campaign, or at least a bad one, can make a real difference to the outcome of a national vote. Lessons for such experiences can always be learnt, though not always are. It is rare, though, for a campaign to cast as long a shadow as the 1975 referendum on whether Britain should stay in the European Union. In many ways we are living still with the distant reverberations of its impact.

This was Britain’s first ever national referendum, and was thus a radical constitutional innovation – and, as we saw in 2016, a lasting one that sat uncomfortably with the UK’s traditions of parliamentary sovereignty. On Thursday 5 June 1975, a sunny but cool day for the time of year, some 25,903,194 (about 65 per cent of the electorate) came out to answer the following question, as set out on the ballot paper, with a Yes/No option:

“The Government has announced the results of the renegotiation of the United Kingdom’s terms of membership of the European Community.

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