Out of the Blue or a Long Time Coming?: The Conservative Party’s Demands for an EU Referendum in Parliamentary Discourse: (1997 - 2010)

The term ‘New Right’ refers to a strand of Conservative politics emerging in the UK during the 1970s, and flourishing mainly under Margaret Thatcher (Beech 2016: 23). The Conservative Party continued to dominate British politics until 1997, when a period of 13 years of Labour governments, from 1997 until 2010, would follow, with Tony Blair pursuing an arguably rather EU-friendly course. When the Conservatives came back to government in a coalition in 2010 and subsequently won the 2015 general election, however, Prime Minister David Cameron tried to renegotiate the relationship with the EU before implementing the election promise to hold a referendum, which resulted in the pro-Brexit vote last June and Cameron’s resignation. Cameron’s successor, Theresa May, formally notified the EU of the UK’s intention to leave on 29 March 2017, while the ultimate consequences of last year’s referendum result – though still uncertain to say the least – are gradually taking shape. The question arises how this could have happened and why these developments seem to have taken many politicians, analysts, scholars and other observers by surprise. While the Conservative party was in government, it was comparatively easy to see where their priorities lay – but their time in opposition constitutes a veritable ‘black-box’ in terms of research on the evolving discourse. This paper will argue that to understand whether the Brexit referendum really came out of the blue or indeed has been a long time coming, it is necessary to explore how the Conservative party’s discourse has developed during their time in opposition. This paper thus sets out to investigate how the Conservative discourse on Europe has developed during the 13 years of opposition, hoping to generate a better understanding of Conservative positions and policies today. The current challenges epitomised by the growing popularity of ‘New Right’ thinking must be traced back in time to unearth their origin and to help explain their growing popularity