Gambling on Europe: David Cameron and the 2016 referendum
Accepted version
Peer-reviewed
Repository URI
Repository DOI
Change log
Authors
Smith, Julie https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1725-5443
Abstract
Membership of the European Union has devided British political parties for decades. On taking office David Cameron hoped to move his Conservative Party beyond the electorally rather unwelcome focus on ‘Europe’. By 2013 he felt the best way to resolve the divisions in his own party was to try to renegotiate the UK’s membership of the EU and hold a referendum on continuing membership. This article argues that the gamble was Cameron’s to lose but that a combination of poor judgement and ill-timing on his part alongside the more potent message of the Leave campaign contributed to precisely the outcome Cameron did not want: he lost office; he country looked set to the leave the EU; and the divisions within his party were far from healed.
Description
Keywords
4407 Policy and Administration, 4408 Political Science, 44 Human Society
Journal Title
British Politics
Conference Name
Journal ISSN
1746-918X
1746-9198
1746-9198
Volume Title
13
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC