Yes to Europe! by Robert Saunders review – the 1975 referendum, when the remainers won

A myth-demolishing study of the vote in which Tony Benn voted to leave and the Tory tabloids hailed a result ‘more unanimous than any decision in peacetime history’

In 1975, supposedly one of the worst years of supposedly the worst decade in recent British history, voters chose to remain in the European Economic Community, now the European Union, by 67.2% to 32.8%. Britain was more insular, more racist, less cosmopolitan, and less confident than it was when the next referendum on Europe was held, 41 years later. But even in Essex and Lincolnshire, the Brexit heartlands of the future, support for Europe was overwhelming. Neil Kinnock, who like many on the left campaigned for leave in 1975, told the Western Mail: “Only an idiot would ignore or resent a majority like this. We’re in for ever.”

Britons preoccupied with the EU, whether for or against, often prefer to invoke history in the abstract rather than actual historical facts, and making sense of the apparent mysteries and contradictions of the 1975 referendum is a task few authors have attempted. Before this thick book, the standard texts were volumes published in the 70s. Robert Saunders’ aim is to look at the contest afresh, in the light of the 2016 referendum, and to use the 1975 campaign “as a window into the political and social history of the 1970s”.

The EEC was also seen as strongly pro-capitalist: significantly, Britons called it the Common Market

Related: Reclaiming Euroscepticism

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