As part of their election platform, David Cameron’s Conservative Party promised to hold a new referendum on continued EU membership. The Conservatives were elected with an overall majority, and the referendum was called for the following year. Mr. Cameron said that if the vote was to leave, he would invoke article 50 of the Treaty of Rome, which allows for a member state to resign from the EU. This article…

Under the Maastricht Treaty, the EEC became the European Union (EU), evolving from an economic to a political union. As a result two political parties were formed in the UK opposing Britain’s continued membership, the Referendum Party (now disappeared) and the UK Independence Party, UKIP.

Having won the general election the year before, Harold Wilson’s Labour Party held a referendum to decide whether Britain should stay in the EEC. The decision was to remain, with 67.2% in favour.

The United Kingdom’s application to join the EEC was finally accepted after previous applications in 1963 and 1967 had been turned down.  The main opposition to the UK came from French president Charles de Gaulle, who believed that Britain was incompatible with Europe, and that there was a deep-rooted hostility in the country to any pan-European plans. However once De Gaulle stepped down Ted Heath’s Conservative Party made the successful…

The European Economic Community (EEC – also known as the “Common Market”) was formed under the Treaty of Rome. There were six founding members, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany.