The People AgainstEurope: The Eurosceptic Challenge to theUnitedKingdom's Coalition Government

This article approaches E uroscepticism as central to a contemporary dynamic of government and opposition. Populist E urosceptic mobilizations exemplify opposition to depoliticized forms of political rule and demonstrate the tight political coupling of the national and the E uropean. In the case of the U nited K ingdom, a depoliticized post‐imperial governing approach to European integration has proved highly contested. From this perspective, the article examines the recent politics of E urope under the coalition government (from 2010 to 2013) as a period of E urosceptic mobilization that successfully challenges E uropean policy. What on the surface appears to be a problem of party management for the C onservative leadership is more accurately understood as a broader conflict between government and a populist E urosceptic opposition. The outcome of this conflict is to further embed hard E uroscepticism within B ritish politics to the point where maintaining governing autonomy on E urope is severely constrained, if not unfeasible.