Abstract
The Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats are often portrayed as Britain’s pro-European parties. Indeed, both parties express a keen interest in keeping Britain in the European Union (EU) and in promoting a constructive engagement with other member states. Yet, to what extent can the two parties be characterized as Europhiles? In this article, we develop Taggart and Szczerbiak’s (2008) concept of hard and soft Euroscepticism, extend it to Europhile party positions, and apply it to Labour and the Liberal Democrats’ recent European policies. For this purpose, we analyse manifestos and party leaders’ key speeches on the EU. We find, overall, that the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats are ‘soft’ Europhiles whose discourses have focused on EU reform. Yet, while their EU policies are very similar, their EU strategies differ: the Labour leadership have generally tried to contain the salience of EU issues, whereas the Liberal Democrats have followed a more offensive EU strategy after 2014. This can best be explained through electoral incentives and internal dynamics.
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Notes
The principle of subsidiarity is defined in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. It ensures that decisions are taken as closely as possible to the citizen and that constant checks are made to verify that action at the EU level is justified in light of the possibilities available at national, regional, or local level. Specifically, it is the principle whereby the EU does not take action (except in the areas that fall within its exclusive competence), unless it is more effective than action taken at national, regional or local level (Europa.eu, 2016).
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Hertner, I., Keith, D. Europhiles or Eurosceptics? Comparing the European policies of the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats. Br Polit 12, 63–89 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1057/bp.2016.4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/bp.2016.4