Editing Conservative Party (UK) (section)

==== European Union policy ====
No subject has proved more divisive in the Conservative Party in recent history than the role of the United Kingdom within the European Union. Though the principal architect of the UK's entry into the [[European Communities]] (which became the European Union) was Conservative Prime Minister [[Edward Heath]], most contemporary Conservative opinion is opposed to closer economic and particularly political union with the EU. This is a noticeable shift in British politics, as in the 1960s and 1970s the Conservatives were more pro-Europe than the Labour Party: for example, in the 1971 House of Commons vote on whether the UK should join the European Economic Community, only 39 of the then 330 Conservative MPs were opposed.<ref name=georgiou>{{cite journal |last1=Georgiou |first1=Christakis |date=April 2017 |title=British Capitalism and European Unification, from Ottawa to the Brexit Referendum |journal=[[Historical Materialism (journal)|Historical Materialism]] |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=90–129 |doi=10.1163/1569206X-12341511 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Lewis |first1=Anthony |author-link1=Anthony Lewis |date=29 October 1971 |title=Commons Votes, 356 to 242, for Britain's Membership in the European Market |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/10/29/archives/commons-votes-356-to-244-for-britains-membership-in-the-european.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |page=1 |access-date=14 September 2019 |archive-date=8 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108140603/https://www.nytimes.com/1971/10/29/archives/commons-votes-356-to-244-for-britains-membership-in-the-european.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Conservative Party has members with varying opinions of the EU, with [[pro-European]] Conservatives joining the affiliate [[Conservative Group for Europe]], while some Eurosceptics left the party to join the [[United Kingdom Independence Party]]. Whilst the vast majority of Conservatives in recent decades have been Eurosceptics, views among this group regarding the UK's relationship with the EU have been polarised between moderate, soft Eurosceptics who support continued British membership but oppose further harmonisation of regulations affecting business and accept participation in a [[multi-speed Europe]], and a more radical, economically libertarian faction who oppose policy initiatives from Brussels, support the rolling back of integration measures from the Maastricht Treaty onwards, and have become increasingly supportive of a complete withdrawal.<ref name=georgiou />