Reconstituting the Policy for Membership in the Single Market Period (1975–1991)

This chapter tracks the policy for membership through a‘ Single Market Period (1975–1990)’ beginning with the agency of James Callaghan, from his rise to the leadership of the party in 1975, his Premiership in 1976 to Labour’s emphatic electoral loss of 1979; the agency of Margaret Thatcher, her contribution to the 1975 ‘Yes’ campaign, and her enthusiasm for strengthening the Common Market through the 1986 Single European Act, which she steered through the British parliament in 1986; and the reorientation of the Labour Party after the electoral defeat of 1983 through Neil Kinnock’s volte-face on the policy for European membership.