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The Labour Party's Changing Relationship to Europe 137
immediately quashed; however, in the European Parliament, the report was passed by 255
to 38, with the 63 abstentions including the British Conservative MEPs. 79
It is apparent that the EP presented a broad opportunity for political and policy
achievement for the Labour Party, and after a time serving in the EP, Labour MEPs
and Party members realised its potential. 80 Speaking for the NEC, Tony Clarke encapsulated
the new Labour attitude: “Each vote for a Labour Euro candidate is a
vote for Labour and is a vote against Thatcher and her divisive policies for Britain
and Europe”. 81 By 1988, a vocal portion of the Conference was drawing attention
to the possibilities in Europe, perhaps partially spurred on by the visit of Jacques
Delors to the Trades Union Conference earlier in the year.
In 1988, Jacques Delors addressed the annual conference of the TUC. He spoke of
issues directly affecting the unions and their members: a social Community that would
benefit workers, not merely employers; a voice in policy-making; protection for the
rights of the members. 82 This last concept, of workers’ rights, resonated with many in
the trade union movement; the related idea of social citizenship had been discussed in
the Labour press since the mid-1980s. Michael Mann wrote that “policy should be built
on top of a simple, more universal, more radical understanding of citizen rights, to enhance
the power of the ordinary person and family against the power of big capital”. 83
At the 1988 Party Conference, Neil Kinnock picked up this theme of European
workers’ rights. The Financial Times reported:
“[The] social dimension is anathema to Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, Labour argues […]
in sharp contrast, Labour’s ‘social Europe’ as defined by Mr. Kinnock, means ensuring
the highest standards of working conditions and workers’ rights”. 84
The Party was primed for the emergence of the Social Charter.
The concept of a ‘social charter’ suited the Party, as in the 1970s Labour had advocated
its own ‘Social Contract’ as an essential tenet of its Manifesto, Let Us Work Together.
85 However, the European Social Charter, drafted in 1980 and an element of the
79. EUROPEAN COMMISSION (Brussels), Bulletin of the European Communities vol.20,
no.5(1987), p.118. It is worthwhile to mention that often the divisions came down on national lines,
rather than the broader political alliances; therefore, examples of clear Labour versus Conservative
voting are difficult to pinpoint.
80. Ben Rosamond highlights the importance of the links built between the Labour Party and the Confederation
of Socialist Parties. See B. ROSAMOND, Labour and the European Community:
Learning to be European?, in: Politics, vol.10, no.2(1990), pp.41-48.
81. 79th Annual Conference …, op.cit., p.140.
82. S. GEORGE and B. ROSAMOND, The European Community, op.cit., p.179.
83. M. MANN, Socialism can Survive: Social Change and the Labour Party, in: Fabian Tract 502,
The Fabian Society, London, March 1985, p.20.
84. Another critical element of this Conference debate was the remission of a resolution demanding change to
the 1972 European Communities Act. The Act, passed under the 1970 Conservative Government in tandem
with the Treaty of Accession to the Communities, accepted the primacy of European Council Directives
in Britain. The Labour Party had, since the law’s inception, been fighting to change it and return power
to the British Parliament. By 1988, most of the controversial laws being passed on the European level
and 'forced' on the British Parliament were social measures that Thatcher and the Conservative MPs did
not like. Labour capitalised on this unintended consequence and thus no longer advocated repeal or
amendment to the European Communities Act.