The 1975 Referendum
On 5th June 1975, the first UK referendum took place on the question “Do you think the United Kingdom should remain part of the European Community (the Common Market)?”. The country had joined in 1973. The UK’s terms were renegotiated by Harold Wilson, the Prime Minister, and James Callaghan, the Foreign Secretary in 1974. Ian Mikardo, a longstanding left-wing MP and chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, observes:
I never believed at any time that [Wilson’s] position was genuinely agnostic… All those people with whom he was negotiating knew that in the final issue whatever he got or didn’t get he was going to say yes. That being so there was no great occasion for him to be given much, and he knew he wasn’t going to get much.”