Euroscepticism and the referendum party

Heath, Anthony; Jowell, Roger; Taylor, Bridget; Thomson, Katarina

doi:10.1080/13689889808413007

Cited by 11 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 1 publication

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“…Why did this change? Our contention is that a key catalyst leading to the creation of a combined European Union/immigration dimension to British party competition was the Labour government's decision to implement 3 The same 1997 election saw James Goldsmith's Referendum Party attempt and fail to force the Conservatives to agree to a referendum on membership of the union (Heath et al 1998). 4 It might have done so had Gordon Brown not prevented Britain from joining the Euro, but his efforts in this respect diffused what could have become a basis of mobilization given the public's opposition (Evans 2003).…”

Section: The Catalystmentioning

confidence: 99%

Immigration, Euroscepticism, and the rise and fall of UKIP

Evans

Mellon

2019

Party Politics

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This paper presents a case study of the emergence of the issue-linkage necessary for a cross-cutting EU cleavage to become electorally salient. We argue that a key political decision on immigration in 2004 facilitated the emergence of a new dimension of party competition and growth in popular support for the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) leading eventually to the 2016 EU Referendum. To examine this thesis we trace the impact of the UK's government's immigration policy on (i) rising immigration, (ii) the political salience of immigration, (iii) the increasing association between concern about immigration and Euroscepticism, and (iv) the emergence of a cross-cutting dimension of party competition coalescing around support for UKIP. The analysis combines information from official immigration rates, media reporting on immigration, Mori polls, Continuous Monitoring Surveys, and the British Election Study.

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Section: The Catalystmentioning

confidence: 99%

Immigration, Euroscepticism, and the rise and fall of UKIP

Evans

Mellon

2019

Party Politics

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“…1 1 E.g., the post‐election British Election Study (BES) in 2005 included just 45 UKIP supporters (Borisyuk et al. 2007: 670), while a study of the earlier and also Eurosceptic Referendum Party (RP) was based on a sample of 34 respondents (Heath et al. 1998).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Strategic Eurosceptics and polite xenophobes: Support for the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) in the 2009 European Parliament elections

Ford

Goodwin

Cutts

2011

European J Political Res

156

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While Euroscepticism is the most important driver of United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) support, other attitudinal drivers – namely dissatisfaction towards mainstream parties and xenophobia – are also important. Examining vote‐switching between first‐ and second‐order elections evidence is found of a distinction between two types of supporter: more affluent and middle‐class ‘strategic defectors’ from the mainstream Conservative Party who support UKIP to register their Euroscepticism, and more economically marginal and politically disaffected ‘core loyalists’ who are attracted to UKIP by its anti‐immigration rhetoric and populist anti‐establishment strategy. UKIP also succeeds in attracting core support from groups such as women who have traditionally rejected extreme right parties such as the British National Party (BNP). This suggests that UKIP is well positioned to recruit a broader and more enduring base of support than the BNP.

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“…Moreover, very few seats swung as a result of the Referendum party's success so Goldsmith's aim to inflict maximum damage on the Conservatives must be deemed a failure. None the less, the fear of Conservative strategists and many individual Conservative MPs of the loss of Eurosceptic supporters to these smaller parties has contributed to pulling the party in a more determined Eurosceptic direction (Stephens 1996;Thompson 1996;Young 1999;Ashford 2000) contrary to the Downsian thesis which would predict a more moderate Euroscepticism to correspond to the shift in British public opinion against further integration in the 1990s (Heath et al 1998).…”

Section: Inter-party Politicsmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Many former Conservative supporters had left the party prior to the 1992 and 1997 elections for a variety of other reasons and then selected to vote for the Referendum and UK Independence parties rather than Labour and the Liberal Democrats because European integration was one of their preoccupations (Heath et al 1998). Moreover, very few seats swung as a result of the Referendum party's success so Goldsmith's aim to inflict maximum damage on the Conservatives must be deemed a failure.…”

Section: Inter-party Politicsmentioning

confidence: 98%

The Domestic Politics of British Policy on the Euro

Howarth

2007

Journal of European Integration

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A wide variety of explanations have been applied by academics and journalists to explain the details of British government policy on the Euro. This article examines four leading explanations rooted in an analysis of domestic politics, arguing that British government reluctance to support Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) membership can be explained more in terms of ideologically infused intra-party politics and the realities of neo-pluralist (interest group) politics, while explanations rooted in an analysis of inter-party politics (electoral considerations) and public opinion are less helpful. The article also compares the relevance of the four domestic political explanations of British policy with regard to the positioning of respectively the two largest political parties in the country: (New) Labour and Conservative (Tory).

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Euroscepticism and the referendum party

Cited by 11 publications

References 1 publication

Immigration, Euroscepticism, and the rise and fall of UKIP

Immigration, Euroscepticism, and the rise and fall of UKIP

Strategic Eurosceptics and polite xenophobes: Support for the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) in the 2009 European Parliament elections

The Domestic Politics of British Policy on the Euro

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