The spectrum of Conservative attitudes to the EU

Jonathan Lindsell, 13 January 2014

This weekend has seen so many EU stories that I felt I couldn’t focus on just one, but did not want to cram comment on several into a few hundred words. Instead, I’ve used the latests pronouncements from William Hague, Chris Grayling and Ken Clarke to plot a very rough table of Tories’ stances towards the European Union.

(Click to zoom. Click again to zoom more.)

This comes with caveats aplenty. The graph is certainly subjective. Many MPs are members of multiple groups, or signatories of different initiatives. For ministers (in bold) the spectrum relies on a few choice comments, since they are broadly united. Boris, as ever, is his own unique case, having talked positively about migrants and the single market, but also confidently about a semi-detached relationship which is usually seen from ‘Outers’. I’m very happy to correct or amend the graph if any MPs or their offices ask me to.

That said, hopefully this graph will prove a useful if blunt tool, and may provoke debate as to where MPs really stand, as well as internal reflection.

Dominic Raab’s Civitas publication, Strasbourg in the Dock, can be found here.