Description

From Churchill’s decision not to join the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951 to Cameron’s In/Out referendum in 2016, the Conservative Party’s divisions over Europe have been an enduring drama of British politics. They were always there sometimes centre stage, at others behind the scenes destabilising foreign policy, corroding the body politic, and destroying prime ministers.

With the Conservatives in power for forty-one of the sixty-five years involved, these divisions contributed to the creation of a deep, grumbling discount with British membership of the EU the worm in the apple that over time culminated in the nation’s decision to vote in favour of leaving. Christopher Tugendhat’s history of the drama is essential to understanding how it was that the party that took Britian into Europe under Heath became the party that led the way out in the referendum.

Publisher Review

Britain has 'left' and re-joined Europe a dozen times over the past two thousand years. The latest swing has been among the bitterest. Tugendhat's survey is a masterful injection of sanity into this perennial argument. -Simon Jenkins; The switch of Conservative Party opinion on Europe was of profound and enduring significance to the UK and the EU. At the heart of this absorbing narrative of how and why it happened is a superb insider's account of a critical moment in the story and one of the great might-have-beens of British history if Margaret Thatcher had been treated differently by the big figures in Europe after 1979. - Peter Hennessy; `Europe has been a poisoned chalice for the Conservatives. Six of the last seven Conservative Prime Ministers have been ruined by it. Few could be better qualified to explain the reasons why than Christopher Tugendhat. The Worm in the Apple is a contribution to understanding of the first importance. It will fascinate everyone who enjoys the world of politics.' Vernon Bogdanor, Professor of Government, King's College, London and author of Britain and Europe in a Troubled World'.