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Update 20.2 July 2009 Euroscepticism and the European Parliamentary elections.

The June 2009 elections to the European Parliament were significant for British politics in many ways. The disastrous results for Labour intensified the pressure on Gordon Brown - see update 20.3 here. They produced a significant breakthrough for the extreme right in Britain: the British National Party for the first time won representation in a major legislature (gaining two seats.) But the most enduring significance may be the way the results have confirmed Euroscepticism as an enduring force in British party politics. The 2004 elections to the European Parliament had produced sensational gains for the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP): it won 12 of the 78 available United Kingdom seats, increasing its numbers by 10 on the previous result, and pushing the Liberal Democrats into fourth place on share of the total vote.

But the failure of UKIP to capitalise on its 2004 successes in the 2005 General Election, and the fact that the party was mired in faction fighting and scandal after 2004, suggested that this kind of organised Euroscepticism might be transient. The 2009 elections to the European Parliament demonstrate otherwise: that it is a permanent feature of British politics, a major source of division in public opinion, and a considerable problem for the three leading Westminster parties. In the June 2009 elections to the European Parliament UKIP marginally raised its share of the vote (up to 16.6 per cent) and its number of seats (up to 13.) It once again beat the Liberal Democrats (13.3 per cent of the vote, 11 seats) but even more sensationally relegated Labour to third place (15.8%) in vote share, and equalled it in number of seats. In European terms UKIP is now established as the second leading UK wide party, after the Conservatives. More important for the study of British party ideology the results confirm that Euroscepticism is now a major ideological force. It joins the ideologies of class, nation and religion which have helped shape the landscape of party ideas in Britain. Although the electorate in Britain has long been one of the most 'Eurosceptic' in the European Union, the Westminster party elite did not reflect that popular outlook. The Liberal Democrats have long been, and remain, enthusiasts for European integration. Labour, initially hostile, became just as enthusiastic in the 1980s and 1990s. The Conservatives led the way into Europe in the 1970s, and until the 1980s matched the two other parties in enthusiasm. In the later stages of Mrs Thatcher's premiership they edged towards a more sceptical attitude, and the rise of UKIP has compelled the party to try to stake out a more sceptical attitude still. Yet all the Westminster parties still remain on the same side of the ideological cleavage which the rise of UKIP has now exposed: by contrast with UKIP they remain committed to continuing UK membership of the Union. How long the Conservatives, in particular, can remain on the pro-EU side of the divide is now one of the major tactical issues in British politics.

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