{"id":773,"date":"2014-10-08T09:12:25","date_gmt":"2014-10-08T08:12:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/?p=773"},"modified":"2024-12-02T11:42:38","modified_gmt":"2024-12-02T11:42:38","slug":"defection-by-elections-and-europein-the-1970s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2014\/10\/08\/defection-by-elections-and-europein-the-1970s\/","title":{"rendered":"Defection, by-elections and Europe\u2026 in the 1970s."},"content":{"rendered":"

In tomorrow\u2019s by-election in Clacton<\/a>, former Conservative MP Douglas Carswell will contest his previous seat after defection to UKIP. Carswell\u2019s strong difference of opinion with his party over the issue of Europe has echoes of a different by-election \u2013 Lincoln in 1973 \u2013 but the parties and positions were reversed.<\/p>\n

When Britain was applying to join the then European Economic Community (EEC) in the 1960s and 1970s it was the Labour party who were divided on the issue and had a significant minority opposed to membership. In 1971 the Conservative leader Ted Heath put the question of entry to the EEC to the Commons, and Labour MPs were instructed to vote against. This caused real issues for a number of Labour MPs, mostly on the right of the party, who were pro-European. Amongst these were some of the MPs who later formed to the Social Democrat Party in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

Dick Taverne<\/a>, MP for Lincoln, would later join the SDP, but he left the Labour party much earlier. As a committed pro-European he rebelled against the party leadership and voted for joining the EEC, and in doing so lost the support of his constituency party. In his recent interview for our oral history project<\/a>, he discussed how he left the Labour party and forced a by-election, standing as an independent social democrat candidate:<\/p>\n

And my local party was absolutely clear about it and they said: \u2018If you vote for entry against the three line whip we will withdraw support\u2019. So I did. And they did. A big battle ensued, in fact it became a national battle, because there was a Granada World in Action programme which televised a debate in which I confronted the leader of my local party, Leo Beckett, and some of his followers. In which they said \u2018Didn\u2019t we support you? Weren\u2019t we on the door step with you?\u2019 and I said \u2018Yes you were and of course I take note of your opinions but I am not a puppet. I don\u2019t vote as I am instructed by my party masters and I am going to vote for entry\u2019. (You can listen to this clip, and more, on our website<\/a>)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The 1973 Lincoln by-election put both local party activists and Taverne\u2019s fellow-MPs who sympathised with his stand, but did not want to force the issue with the party, in a difficult position. He remembered that “one third of my local party joined me, which was very brave because they worked for the party all their lives, they were due to be expelled.” However, support from fellow-MPs, even quietly, was very difficult: “I got nudges of support, they\u2019d hope I do well. I mean Roy was absolutely delighted when I won \u2013 Roy Jenkins \u2013 but he couldn\u2019t possibly.”<\/p>\n

Despite winning the by-election, Taverne continued to face difficulties on his return to the House of Commons. In the following extract, he remembers being viewed as a \u2018traitor\u2019 to his party, and losing that support:<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/dick-taverne-traitor.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

Taverne won the following general election but lost his seat in October 1974. He wrote a book calling for a third, centrist party in British politics and when the SDP was formed in the 1980s he joined, now sitting in the Lords as a Liberal Democrat peer. Whilst the Clacton by-election is in very different circumstances, the vexed issue of British membership of Europe remains.<\/p>\n

EP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In tomorrow\u2019s by-election in Clacton, former Conservative MP Douglas Carswell will contest his previous seat after defection to UKIP. Carswell\u2019s strong difference of opinion with his party over the issue of Europe has echoes of a different by-election \u2013 Lincoln in 1973 \u2013 but the parties and positions were reversed. When Britain was applying to join the then European Economic Community (EEC) in the 1960s … Continue reading Defection, by-elections and Europe\u2026 in the 1970s.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41328208,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[774275544,4406049,774275819,34931755,368880,165907480,104839,94605313],"tags":[463968,17379255,11180562,4328,323313,175677],"class_list":["post-773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contemporary-history","category-20th-century-history","category-diplomacy-and-international-relations","category-elections-2","category-factions","category-post-1945-history","category-oral-history","category-political-parties","tag-by-elections","tag-dick-taverne","tag-douglas-carswell","tag-europe","tag-sdp","tag-ukip"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2QYNW-ct","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1243,"url":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2016\/05\/24\/labour-and-the-1975-referendum\/","url_meta":{"origin":773,"position":0},"title":"The Parties and Europe 1: Labour and the 1975 Referendum","author":"Emma Peplow","date":"May 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The European Referendum campaign is now in full swing, creating heated political debate and causing some unusual alliances. In British politics, however, the issue of Europe and Britain\u2019s role in it has been long-running and divisive for both the Labour and Conservative parties. The issue features prominently in our interviews\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Contemporary History"","block_context":{"text":"Contemporary History","link":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/category\/sections\/contemporary-history\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":19557,"url":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2026\/01\/16\/crossing-the-floor\/","url_meta":{"origin":773,"position":1},"title":"Crossing the Floor: Tales from the Oral History Project","author":"Alfie Steer","date":"January 16, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Following some recent, high-profile, political defections, Alfie Steer and Dr Emma Peplow have delved into the History of Parliament\u2019s Oral History archive to explore historical cases of MPs changing their party affiliations: their causes, motivations and wider significance. Political defections, commonly known in Westminster parlance as \u2018Crossing the Floor\u2019, have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "20th century history"","block_context":{"text":"20th century history","link":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/category\/centuries\/20th-century-history\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-1.png?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-1.png?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-1.png?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historyofparliament.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-1.png?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1245,"url":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2016\/05\/26\/conservatives-and-maastricht\/","url_meta":{"origin":773,"position":2},"title":"The parties and Europe 2: Conservatives and Maastricht","author":"Emma Peplow","date":"May 26, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Earlier this week we delved in to our oral history archive to discover the divisions within the Labour Party over Britain\u2019s entry into the European Economic Community (EEC) in the 1970s. In today\u2019s blogpost, we\u2019ve returned to our archive to uncover memories of the struggle to ratify the 1992 Maastricht\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "20th century history"","block_context":{"text":"20th century history","link":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/category\/centuries\/20th-century-history\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5106,"url":"https:\/\/historyofparliament.com\/2020\/07\/30\/a-tribute-to-david-mudd-mp\/","url_meta":{"origin":773,"position":3},"title":"A tribute to David Mudd MP","author":"Emma Peplow","date":"July 30, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"In the fourth in our series of tributes to our Oral History Project interviewees who have sadly passed away during the current crisis, Emma Peplow looks back on the life of David Mudd, Conservative MP for Falmouth and Camborne, 1970-92. 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