The Conservative Party and Brexit

The stakes for the United Kingdom Conservative party are high indeed. Negotiating a ‘successful’ Brexit is a major challenge for Tory party statecraft. They have to identify a plausible model for a British future outside the EU which recognises the will of voters expressed in the referendum result, without sacrificing the Conservative party’s traditional credentials of economic stewardship. Moreover, Teresa May has to hold together a party which Europe has threatened to destroy more than once over the last three decades.

The June 2016 referendum was intended to clarify the UK’s relationship with Europe for at least a generation; the risk is that it simply provokes an almost never-ending round of political turmoil and schism.

• Primary Source

ESO: In Focus: Brexit - The United Kingdom and the European Union http://www.europeansources.info/record/brexit-the-united-kingdom-and-the-european-union/

ESO: Background information: Government announces end of European Communities Act http://www.europeansources.info/record/government-announces-end-of-european-communities-act/

Blog: UK in a Changing Europe, 06.10.16: Britain has no regrets about Brexit. But Theresa May might http://ukandeu.ac.uk/britain-has-no-regrets-about-brexit-but-theresa-may-might/

Carnegie Europe: Strategic Europe, 10.10.16: How Brexit Might Not Happen http://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/?fa=64810

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