Referendum party
| Referendum party | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Party leader | James Goldsmith |
| founding | November 27, 1994 |
| resolution | 1997 |
| Alignment | EU skepticism |
Referendum Party was the name of several one-topic parties in the United Kingdom that sought a referendum on the country's relationship with the European Union . The most important of these parties was founded by entrepreneur and billionaire James Goldsmith for the British general election in 1997 .
program
The party sought to hold a referendum on the UK's membership of the European Union. She intended to run in any constituency that did not yet have a leading candidate to support such a vote. The seats for which she did not run were generally occupied by Eurosceptic MPs from the Conservative Party . However, she also did not run against pro-European MPs from all parties who were in favor of a referendum. Accordingly, most of the candidates, members and supporters of the referendum party were Eurosceptics, but there were definitely pro-European attitudes. In Northern Ireland , the referendum party did not run, but supported the Ulster Unionist Party .
On November 28, 1996, the party presented the question to be voted on in a referendum:
- "Do you want the United Kingdom to be part of a federal Europe or do you want the United Kingdom to return to an association of sovereign nations that are part of a common trading market?" ( "Do you want the UK to be part of a federal Europe, or do you want the UK to return to an association of sovereign nations as part of a general commercial market?" )
Even before the election, the party had a short-term seat in the lower house when the Conservative MP for the Reigate constituency , George Gardiner , entered the referendum party in a dispute over his re-nomination by the Conservative Party.
General election 1997
In March 1997, the party delivered a videotape to five million households. The 12-minute film, presented by TV presenter Gavin Campbell, warned of a “federal European superstate”.
In the 1997 general election, the Referendum Party received more than 800,000 votes, making it the fourth largest force, but not winning a seat.
According to an analysis by John Curtice and Michael Steed, “only a handful of conservative seats can be traced back to the intervention of the referendum party”. In their estimation, only four more seats would have gone to the Conservative Party had it not been for the referendum party. Supporters of the party complained, however, that the Conservatives lost between 25 and 30 seats, which were directly due to the referendum party's election campaign. Curtice and Steed's analysis comes to the conclusion that whenever there was a candidate for the Referendum Party or the UK Independence Party , the Conservatives had to accept a loss of votes. However, when a referendum party candidate received a high percentage of the vote, he was more likely to draw voters who would otherwise have voted for the Labor Party or the Liberal Democrats .
George Gardiner ran for re-election in the Reigate constituency for the referendum party, but was beaten by the new Conservative Party candidate.
Goldsmith announced that it wanted to continue the party, but his death in July 1997 robbed it of its most prominent leader and the financial resources he had provided. The party disbanded shortly afterwards.
Successor organizations
Party leaders, including Goldsmith's widow Lady Anabel Goldsmith, founded a successor organization, the Referendum Movement . This united in January 1999 with the euro- hostile organization Euro Information Campaign founded by the millionaire Paul Sykes to form the Democracy Movement . This is not a party, but an interest group .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Andrew Pierce: Goldsmith chooses his words for big question on Europe , in: The Times , London, November 28, 1996, p. 11.
- ↑ David Hass: The Referendum Party's video mailer strategy , in: Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, October 1997.
- ^ John Curtice / Michael Steed: The Results Analyzed , in: David Butler / Dennis Kavanagh: The British General Election of 1997 , Macmillan, Basing Stoke 1997, ISBN 0-333-64775-0 , Appendix 2, p. 308.
- ↑ Peter Etherden: The Goldsmith Agenda Beyond the Referendum Party ( Memento of the original from November 26, 2003 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Accessed May 13, 2010
- ^ John Curtice / Michael Steed: The Results Analyzed , in: David Butler / Dennis Kavanagh: The British General Election of 1997 , Macmillan, Basing Stoke 1997, ISBN 0-333-64775-0 , Appendix 2, p. 307.
- ^ Robin Young: Goldsmith widow takes his mantle , in: The Times, London January 13, 2001.
