British Politics and European Elections 1994

The 1994 Euro-elections may have marked a sea-change in British politics. The Conservatives lost seats, but the Prime Minister narrowly saw off threats to his position. The Liberal Democrats won seats, but did not make the breakthrough in the south that pundits had been predicting. Perhaps above all, John Smith's untimely death led to the appearance of a new phenomenon in British politics, the `Blair effect'. This study is primarily about the short and complex 1994 Euro-campaign in Britain, but it places this in the more general context of Britain's awkward relations with its continental partners and the changing positions on Europe of British political parties. Deprived of power in Westminster, Labour became stronger in Strasbourg, and Europe remained firmly on the British political agenda.