The prime minister is hoping to buck the trend of leaders whose careers have been destroyed by the UK's relationship with Europe.
Wilson boxed clever by holding a referendum to paper over the huge divisions in the country.More than two-thirds voted yes.But as she told me she loves a fight.
By now the ruling Conservative Party was split. Thatcher expressed her doubts about the direction Europe was taking in the Bruges speech. Then pro-Europeans led by Michael Heseltine and Geoffrey Howe forced her out. She departed denouncing further integration.The new prime minister, John Major, took a softer approach, trying to balance both sides. He claimed game, set and match at the Maastricht negotiations opting Britain out of the single currency.
After 9/11 European unity was shattered by Blair's decision to go to war shoulder to shoulder with the Americans, something French President Jacques Chirac opposed loudly.Meanwhile Britain was one of the only countries not to impose limits on migration from the new member states in Eastern Europe. Nearly three million came into the country in the first decade of the century.
By the time Cameron came to power in 2010, the majority of Conservative activists were Eurosceptic, some clamouring for a referendum. Cameron held off the calls for his first term thanks to the coalition government with the Liberal Democrats.
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