In the second election campaign of 1974, the Labour party’s manifesto offered the prospect of a referendum on our continued membership of the Common Market, which we had joined without a plebiscite and only on the strength of Parliament passing The European Communities Act 1972.
Enoch Powell, a former Conservative minister, urged Conservatives to vote Labour in that election in order to be able to take advantage of its referendum offer. I was very tempted by Powell’s advice. In the end however, I didn’t take it, but when Labour won, I was consoled by the prospect that we would -as a consequence, have a referendum.
When the referendum came in 1975 I vigorously supported the ‘No’ campaign. Alas, I was on the losing side, but that’s democracy.
For years previously the UK had been trying to join the Common Market in order to benefit from the free trade advantages that would accrue to the significant proportion of our trade with it’s members. Our government’s enthusiasm was based on economic gain, and our politicians persuaded themselves that the Treaty of Rome, to which we would have to accede, did not really mean what it said about evolving towards a political ‘ever closer union’.
Our earlier attempts to join were thwarted by General de Gaulle, who did not want the UK to enjoy the same competitive advantage in the Market as France. The Irony is that whilst de Gaulle was the brake on our joining, he was also the brake on the reality of ‘ever closer union’. The end of his presidential tern in 1969 opened the way to a successful prospect for serious negotiations on UK accession, but it also gave renewed impetus towards the creation of the European Union.
This trajectory was already obvious to those MPs who voted against the European Communities Act 1972 and rejected Prime Minister Edward Heath’s assertion that membership entailed “no essential loss of national sovereignty”.
The Common Market, then the EEC, then the EU evolved in exactly the way we had foreseen and warned in the 1975 referendum campaign. I joined the Campaign for an Independent Britain and I was never reconciled to our membership, notwithstanding its economic benefits. I was not however, an enthusiast for a second referendum, having been on the losing side in 1975 and I feared that the experience would be repeated. Nevertheless, when the second referendum came in 2016, I campaigned even more vigorously than in 1975, addressing 15 public meeting across the South East of England. I was surprised and delighted by the result, even though it ended my ministerial career.
So, how will I vote on our newly negotiated trade deal with the EU?
Well, before deciding I will want to have the chance to thoroughly digest it which, as I write, I have not yet had the opportunity to do, but here are the principles on which I will decide: First, I have to acknowledge the advantage for free trade arrangements with our closest and largest market, it was this that drew us into joining in the first place and reverting to tariffs and quotas will be significantly to our disadvantage.
Second, trading advantage however, must not be secured at the price of our sovereignty, we cannot allow ourselves any longer to be governed by people whom we did not elect and cannot remove.
Nevertheless, any trade deal comes at a price, there are trade-offs that have to be made and we have to make an assessment of the balance of advantage to be had.
If the price of this new trade deal is to be paid principally in fish, then that is a price I am, at least, certainly prepared to consider.
Sir Desmond Swayne TD
