The European Union: Why Britain Should Never Have Gone In; Why Britain Must Come Out

Against joining: Here is the impassioned Speech (I heard it broadcast live) by the late Hugh Gaitskell,* speaking as party leader at the 1962 Labour Party annual conference:

For Britain’s entry into a Customs Union – such as the Economic Community of Europe – has a double effect. The barriers go down between us and the six countries of Europe. But they go up between us and the Commonwealth. We shall find it easier to sell in the markets of the six, because we shall no longer be faced with tariffs against our goods. How much are they now? Ten to fifteen per cent. But we shall be at a disadvantage in the rest of Europe compared with our position today, because in the European Free Trade Area we now have a tariff advantage over and against the six countries, which we shall lose if we go in. And since it would be rash to assume that the advantages which the Commonwealth countries give us in their markets will be retained by us when we deprive them of the advantages they at present have in ours, we shall also lose in Commonwealth markets for the same reason. What does all this amount to? In 1961, 16.7 per cent of our exports went to the Common Market countries: 13.1 per cent – not so very far off it – to the rest of Western Europe – the E.F.T.A. countries, and 43 per cent went to the countries of the Commonwealth Preference System. We would gain in markets were we sell less than one-fifth of our exports and lose in markets where we sell about half our exports. This needs to be qualified a little because of the level of the tariffs. But nobody who has even glanced at this problem can really suppose that there is any advantage to be expected from the switch. ... Full Text

For leaving: Prime Minister Boris Johnson, speaking today at the Conservative Party annual conference:

——— * Hugh Gaitskell, a right-wing member of the Labour Party, died shortly after this speech, poisoned so he is said to have believed, by the Soviet Secret police. His place was taken by Harold Wilson, a left-wing socialist, said to have been favored by the Soviet Union.