The Labour Party and Europe from Brown to Miliband: Back to the Future?

Abstract: This article analyzes British Labour Party leaders' discourses on Europe since 2007 – that is, after Tony Blair left power. Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband are analyzed in relation to one of the traditional attitudes of the party since the 1950s.
It is argued that two trends in attitudes to European integration among Labour leaders can be identified. One is wariness of European integration for fear that Britain could lose its Commonwealth links and its global outlook. The other is seeing strong engagement in the European Community as crucial to Britain's political and economic future. Blair followed these steps, at least rhetorically, in aiming to strengthen British leadership in the EU. Brown and Miliband, though sharing a broad support for the EU, both emphasized the failings of the EU and shared their earlier predecessors' preference for a ‘global’ Britain.