Britain's First Referendum on Europe

In June 1975, the UK held its first ever national referendum — a single, defining question:
Should Britain remain in the European Economic Community?

To modern eyes, the result feels almost unreal.
67% voted Yes.
A two-thirds majority.
A level of political unity that’s almost impossible to imagine today.

But that overwhelming endorsement didn’t settle the argument.
It simply paused it.

The debate about Europe — its influence, its laws, its benefits, and its costs — continued to simmer beneath the surface of British politics for decades. It would go on to reshape parties, topple governments, and ultimately return in 2016 with a dramatically different outcome.

Why the 1975 referendum mattered legally

• 
  The EEC was not the EU as we know it, but this moment marked Britain’s first public engagement with:
  supranational law and shared sovereignty
  
• harmonised economic and trade regulation
  
• cross-border business rules that affected every sector
  
• the principle that European treaties could override domestic law
  
• From that point forward, UK legal frameworks evolved in tandem with Europe — competition law, employment protections, environmental rules, consumer rights, professional mobility, and the free movement provisions that reshaped the labour market.
  
  Even today, law firms deal with the legacy of that integration:
  retained EU law
  
• regulatory realignment
  
• cross-border disputes
  
• data adequacy
  
• trade frictions
  
• workforce movement post-Brexit
  

The 1975 vote set the trajectory that made all of these realities possible.

Why 1975 still resonates

Because it shows how dramatically legal and political certainty can change over a lifetime.

A nation that overwhelmingly voted to stay would, four decades later, narrowly vote to leave.
The consequences of both decisions echo through every conversation about regulation, business strategy, risk, client operations, and the future of the UK’s legal landscape.

1975 isn’t just history — it’s the opening chapter of a story that every modern firm is still navigating.