AHC Eurosceptic Labour and Pro-EU Conservatives

In the spirit of today's referendum, your challenge is to make the Labour Party maintain Euroscepticism and the Conservatives to remain pro-European. Obviously this is after they began to drift towards their current positions...
 
Didn't Neil Kinnock have an accident just before the '83 leadership election? Say that's more serious and he has to pull out, maybe Peter Shore could have more of a chance. If Shore wins, he might entrench Euroscepticism on the left.
 
Does it have to be exactly our EU? Have one that's a much more stripped down affair mostly to do with trade such as the European Economic Area with less emphasis on the social side of things and I could see attitudes remaining as they historically were with the Conservatives pro and Labour anti before they switched over would be the easiest solution. That might be considered cheating though. :)
 
Well, I guess if we have the late Tony Benn (a left wing Eurosceptic) as Labour leader and Ken Clarke or Michael Heseltine (both right wing Europhiles) as Tory PM, this could be a goer.
 
The POD would be to somehow do away with Jacques Delors' tenure as head of the European Commission.

Delors was a socialist, as well as a major politician from a major country. Some EC heads have fit the profile of "major politician from a major country" but probably more have been minor country pols, like the current one. The former tend to be stronger leaders of the Commission and Delors fit that mold. He did more to push European integration than the norm, and also reached out to the left, which had tended to oppose European institutions, by including strong worker protections in the various integrationist treaties.

The British left, particularly in Labour, starting seeing European institutions as a counterweight to Thatcherism, and their leadership still sees things that way, judging by the pressure on Corbyn, who is obviously eurosceptic, to run a stronger pro-EU campaign. Though the nationalist right might have opposed Britain being part of a pro-integrated Europe anyway, the additional worker protections swung some hyper-capitalist against the EU as well.

Not incidentally, despite their rhetoric, the actual position of the Conservative Party has always been in favor of British membership of the EU or its predecessor organizations, but with the ability to opt out of specific policies that they don't like. Labour's position has changed more, from being against British membership or at least divided, to being in favor, to being divided or very weakly in favor.
 

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
But how to get to a state where that could happen?
1966 goes 1% better, and Shore isn't over promoted. Wilson grooms his to be his successor, and when Wilson leaves in 1972/73 (having won 1970/1971 thanks in part to the massive majority a 1% gave him), Shore succeeds him. Shore's flavor of Left-Wing Nationalism gives him a major influence- mainly thanks to the face his Manifesto's will have won Labour's largest victory-and we see Labour go towards more of an anti-EEC rhetoric. Meanwhile, the Conservatives have to pick up the pieces with 1966. Heath is out, and is a large chunk of the party. Maudling becomes the Conservative Leader out of the sense that a safe pair of hands are needed. Maudling is Maudling and meanders into 1970/1971, and resigns as Leader following his defeat. Rippon runs for leadership, and thanks to his ties with the Monday Club, is able to win the subsequent contest. The country begins to move towards Europe, although with Shore firmly not wanting Britain to join the EEC; Rippon advocates joining. Rippon narrowly wins the 1974/5 election, and plans to have an in/out Referendum on Britain's position within Europe. What's important is that Rippon wins, vindicating his pro-Europe Conservatism, whilst Shore looses- at this point, Labour has adopted his ideology, and any successor is going to be likely toeing a similar line.

That's about the best I have.
 
In the spirit of today's referendum, your challenge is to make the Labour Party maintain Euroscepticism and the Conservatives to remain pro-European. Obviously this is after they began to drift towards their current positions...

Umm.

The Conservative Party leadership (at least the PM and IIRC most of the ministers) were Remain.

Across the aisle, many Labour MPs were Leave, and Labour leader Corbyn had a long history of Euro-skepticism (voted against joining the Common Market, voted against the Maastricht Treaty, voted against the Lisbon Treaty). The Blairites were Remain, but the Labour Left was mostly Leave.

This was really a case of ends against the middle.
 

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
Umm.

The Conservative Party leadership (at least the PM and IIRC most of the ministers) were Remain.

Across the aisle, many Labour MPs were Leave, and Labour leader Corbyn had a long history of Euro-skepticism (voted against joining the Common Market, voted against the Maastricht Treaty, voted against the Lisbon Treaty). The Blairites were Remain, but the Labour Left was mostly Leave.

This was really a case of ends against the middle.
I think Cev means that Europhila and Euroskeptisim as a major part of the Conservative and Labour Parties (respectively) ideologies, where in our world Labour is more Europhilic whilst the Conservative are more Euroskeptic.
 
Didn't Neil Kinnock have an accident just before the '83 leadership election? Say that's more serious and he has to pull out, maybe Peter Shore could have more of a chance. If Shore wins, he might entrench Euroscepticism on the left.

This seems most sensible to me, or have Foot endorse Shore (as he was planning to) in 1980 and the jobs a good un. Shore by all accounts was a clear soft lefty and Eurosceptic but also a competent and often times threatening opposition to Thatcher so may well have prevented a disaster in 1983 and carried on afterwards.
 
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