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The First British MEPs: Styles and Strategies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2008

Caroline Jackson
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Extract

When the United Kingdom joined the European Community on 1 January 1973 it became entitled to send thirty-six representatives to the European Parliament. For the first six years of Britain's membership – from January 1973 to June 1979 – these members were nominated from the two Houses of Parliament and hence held a dual mandate. From January 1973 to June 1975 only twenty-one British members, Conservative, Liberal, Ulster Unionist and a cross-bench peer, attended the Parliament; Labour members attended from the first session after the referendum on British membership of the European Community in June 1975.

Type
Articles
Information
Contemporary European History , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , July 1993 , pp. 169 - 195
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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References

1 The abbreviation ‘MEP’ for Member of the European Parliament only came into frequent use after the direct elections held in 1979. It is used for convenience in this article to describe the nominated members as well.

2 ‘Treaty establishing the European Community’, in Treaties Establishing the European Communities, Art. 137 (Luxembourg: EC Official Publications Office, 1987).Google Scholar

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4 Judgement of the European Court of Justice, Case 138/79.

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8 The Times, 7 Nov. 1972.Google Scholar

9 Ibid., 14 Dec. 1972.

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11 Hayward, Ron, the Labour Party General Secretary, reminded the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) of this at their meeting in Nov. 1972, The Times, 9 Nov. 1972.Google Scholar

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26 Ibid., 16 Sept. 1974, OJ, Annex 180, 32.

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28 PLP Liaison Committee minutes for 11 June 1975, Museum of Labour History Archive, Manchester.

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31 Ibid., 25 June 1975. The members nominated were, from the House of Lords: Lords Ardwick, Castle, Bruce, Gordon-Walker, Walston and Baroness Fisher. From the House of Commons the nominees were: Guy Barnett (Greenwich), Betty Boothroyd (West Bromwich, West), Tam Dalyell (West Lothian), Sir Geoffrey de Freitas (Kettering), Gwyneth Dunwoody (Crewe), Tom Ellis (Wrexham), John Evans (Newton-le-Willows), William Hamilton (Fife, Central) Mark Hughes (Durham), Richard Mitchell (Southampton, Itchen), John Prescott (Kingston-upon-Hull) and Michael Stewart (Hammersmith, Fulham).

32 Ibid.

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46 E. P. Deb., 11 May 1976, OJ Annex 203, 17–32. Borschette had a heart attack that night and never resumed his duties as a Commissioner. Prescott's forceful attack on the Commission made a great impression on the normally quiescent parliamentary scene at the time, and Borschette's heart attack was blamed by some on Prescott. But the debate reads very mildly now.Google Scholar

47 Ibid., 15 June 1976, OJ, Annex 204, 18–43.

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50 Ibid., 106. Voting was by roll-call of members, since at this time members had no electronic voting machines and there was no other way of recording votes. Voting was normally by show of hands.

51 Author's interview with Lady Kirk, Oct. 1992, Jackson Archive.

52 928 H. C. Deb. 5s, col. 1663.

53 T. J. Bainbridge, Memorandum on the Conservative Group leadership, 28 Jan. 1982, CGA. The Conservative leadership made two abortive attempts, on behalf of Eldon Griffiths MP and Paul Channon MP, to get its nominated leader into a safe seat in 1979. When these attempts failed, James Scott-Hopkins was then nominated as the prospective leader. Geoffrey Rippon showed no interest in standing in direct elections when it became clear that he would have to submit himself to the selection committee process in the new European constituencies.

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55 The Times, 12 Jan. 1973.

56 ‘Interim report on the problem of direct elections to the European Parliament’, Oct. 1974, CGA, 3.

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58 Conservative Research Department, Campaign Guide for Europe 1979 (London, 1979), 2, referring to an article by Crosland in Socialist Commentary.

59 E. P. Deb., 15 June 1977, OJ Annex 218, 127.

60 Ibid., 129.

61 Ibid., 6 July 1977, OJ, Annex 219, 174.

62 Ibid., 16 Nov. 1978, OJ, Annex 236, 221.

63 Ibid., 237–8.

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65 E. P. Deb., 12 Dec. 1978, OJ, Annex 237, 51.