Europhiles or Eurosceptics? Comparing the European policies of the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats

Abstract

The Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats are often portrayed as Britain’s pro-European parties. Indeed, both parties express a keen interest in keeping Britain in the European Union (EU) and in promoting a constructive engagement with other member states. Yet, to what extent can the two parties be characterized as Europhiles? In this article, we develop Taggart and Szczerbiak’s (2008) concept of hard and soft Euroscepticism, extend it to Europhile party positions, and apply it to Labour and the Liberal Democrats’ recent European policies. For this purpose, we analyse manifestos and party leaders’ key speeches on the EU. We find, overall, that the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats are ‘soft’ Europhiles whose discourses have focused on EU reform. Yet, while their EU policies are very similar, their EU strategies differ: the Labour leadership have generally tried to contain the salience of EU issues, whereas the Liberal Democrats have followed a more offensive EU strategy after 2014. This can best be explained through electoral incentives and internal dynamics.