Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
  1. Home
  2. Books
  3. The first referendum
  • Cited by 7
      • Show more authors
      • You may already have access via personal or institutional login
    • Select format
    • Publisher:
      Manchester University Press
      Publication date:
      07 February 2026
      ISBN:
      9781526145208
      9781526145192
      Dimensions:
      Weight & Pages:
      Dimensions:
      Weight & Pages:
      • Subjects:
      Politics: General Interest, British History: General Interest, History, Politics and International Relations
    You may already have access via personal or institutional login
    • Selected: Digital
    Add to cart View cart Buy from Cambridge.org
    Subjects:
    Politics: General Interest, British History: General Interest, History, Politics and International Relations
    Manchester University Press logo on white
    Information

    Book description

    On 1 January 1973 Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath brought the UK into the European Community. Although this was celebrated at first, by the end of the year the mood had changed from ‘hope to uncertainty’. Not only was 1973 a bad year to join the Community, the UK had done so on the promise that it would ‘join now and negotiate later’. This proved a poor strategy. Compounding these difficulties, Heath faced trouble at home which eventually led him to lose the February 1974 general election. Labour’s Harold Wilson returned to Downing Street, promising a fundamental renegotiation of the terms of membership and a referendum on whether to stay in the EC. This was what he delivered and, in the end, 67 per cent of voters said ‘yes’ to continued membership. Yet the renegotiation has been dismissed as a political strategy which ultimately delivered few results and the referendum is seen as an ‘unenthusiastic vote for the status quo’. But it is clear that in some areas, Wilson’s renegotiation was contiguous with the Heath government’s attempts to revise the terms of entry. Moreover, there was a lively campaign in 1975, which engaged the country in a wide range of arguments for and against membership. In this book, Lindsay Aqui seeks to understand what happened during the first year of membership, the extent to which the renegotiation changed the terms of membership, and whether voters were convinced of the pro-Market case in 1975.

    Refine List

    Actions for selected content:

    Select all | Deselect all
    • View selected items
    • Export citations
    • Download PDF (zip)
    • Save to Kindle
    • Save to Dropbox
    • Save to Google Drive

    Save Search

    You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

    Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
    Cancel
    ×

    Contents

    Contents

    Metrics

    Full text views

    Total number of HTML views: 0
    Total number of PDF views: 0 *
    Loading metrics...

    Book summary page views

    Total views: 0 *
    Loading metrics...

    * Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

    Usage data cannot currently be displayed.

    Accessibility standard: Unknown

    Why this information is here

    This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

    Accessibility Information

    Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.