Social democratic Euroscepticism: Labour’s neglected tradition

The referendum result of 2016 creates a timely opportunity to reappraise Euroscepticism in British politics. This article examines the Eurosceptic tradition within the Labour Party, specifically its moderate wing. During the referendum campaign, Euroscepticism within the Labour Party was presented as a temporary phenomenon limited to the ‘hard left’ of the Party in the early 1980s. However, this view neglects a much longer tradition of Euroscepticism on the moderate wing of the Labour Party dating back to the earliest post–Second World War attempts to foster European unity. This article seeks to restore that tradition and concludes that it is built on a clear conceptualisation of social democratic ideology.