The Rise of the Policy for Membership in the Common Market Period (1961–1977)

This chapter opens the analysis of pro-European agency in Britain, tracking the establishment of the policy for membership of European political institutions in the Conservative and Labour Parties in ‘a Common Market Period (1961–1977)’, beginning with the agency of Edward Heath for taking Britain into the EEC in 1973, Harold Wilson and his second premiership, his 1975 extension of a popular referendum on membership of the European Economic Community to confirm his government’s renegotiation of the policy, and Roy Jenkins’ struggles with the Labour leadership, his contribution to the ‘Yes’ campaign in the 1975 referendum through to his Presidency of the European Commission in 1977.