Debating federal Europe in the British Parliament, c. 1940–49

Abstract

Federalism, or the fear of it, worked as a catalyst in the British pre-referendum debate on Brexit in June 2016. In this paper, we focus on the pre-European integration context and ask what kind of an alternative federalism was seen to afford in British politics during and after the Second World War. We limit our discussion to parliamentary debates, which have only rarely been used as primary sources for studying European integration history. The British Parliament was one of the key political arenas for debates on foreign policy, not just in terms of informing the party lines but also guiding the public discussion. In the early part of the 1940s, the British federalist movement was able to generate political debate on the issue and gain the attention of many leading politicians. We argue that the approach to the use of the concept was politically charged but remained open to various context-based interpretations, which did not eventually lead to any concrete proposals. During the latter part of the 1940s, the majority of British MPs were open to different ways of creating unity in Europe. The emphasis on national sovereignty, however, continued. As a result ‘federalism’, attached to structures for unity, gave way to more pragmatic political solutions.

Keywords:

• Federalism
• Europe
• British Parliament
• 1940s
• politics
• integration

Notes

1. See House of Commons Debates (HC Deb) 20 January 1971, 6th ser., vol 809, cols. 1079–220; HC Deb 4 Feb 2016, 6th ser., vol. 605, cols. 1119–1157.

2. McCarthy, The British People and the League of Nations, 6.

3. Douglas, The Labour Party, Nationalism and Internationalism, 1939–1951, 217.

4. Bosco, ‘Lothian, Curtis, Kimber and the Federal Union Movement,’ 465.

5. Bosco, ‘Lothian, Curtis, Kimber and the Federal Union Movement,’ 466.

6. For example, Bosco, Federal Union and the Origins of the ‘Churchill Proposal;’ Mayne and Pinder, Federal Union; see also Crozier, ‘Federalism and Anti-Federalism in the United Kingdom,’ 160–72.

7. Cf. Ihalainen and Matikainen, ‘The British Parliament and Foreign Policy in the 20th Century,’ 1–14.

8. For example, Austin, How to do Things with Words; Skinner, ‘Rhetoric and Conceptual Change,’ 60–73; Koselleck, ‘The Temporalisation of Concepts,’ 16–24; Cf. Ihalainen and Palonen, ‘Parliamentary Sources in the Comparative Study of Conceptual History,’ 17–34.

9. Ihalainen, Ilie and Palonen, ‘Parliament as a Conceptual Nexus,’ 1–16.

10. Cf. Skinner, Visions of Politics, 105, 126–7.

11. The corpus is formed of parliamentary debates that were selected on the basis of word searches between 1940 and 1949 from the online search engine Hansard 1803–2005: http://hansard.millbanksystems.com. The key terms used were ‘federalism+Europe’, ‘European+federation’ and ‘European+federal’.

12. Bell, ‘Document No. 62,’ 167–8.

13. Onslow, Backbench Debate within the Conservative Party and its Influence on British Foreign Policy, 12; Wurm, ‘VII: Great Britain,’ 636–7.

14. Bosco, Federal Union, 1–2; see also Burgess, The British Tradition of Federalism, 139–48.

15. For details and press comments on the proposal, see Bell, ‘Document No. 71,’ 187–9.

16. Pasture, Imagining European Unity since 1000 AD, 170.

17. HC Deb 18 November 1941, 5th ser., vol. 376, col. 188.

18. HC Deb 19 November 1941, 5th ser., vol. 376, col. 354.

19. Rosenboim, ‘Barbara Wootton, Friedrich Hayek and the Debate on Democratic Federalism in the 1940s,’ 898.

20. HC Deb 20 November 1941, 5th ser., vol. 376, col. 506.

21. Milani, ‘From Laissez-Faire,’ 4.

22. House of Lords Debates (HL Deb) 04 June 1942, 5th ser., vol. 123, col. 163.

23. Lipgens, A History of European Integration, 63.

24. HL Deb 21 July 1942, 5th ser., vol. 123, cols. 935–6.

25. HL Deb 21 July 1942, 5th ser., vol. 123, col. 970.

26. Churchill’s speech was broadcast on 21 March 1943. This was the first time that he mentioned post-war reconstruction and put forward the idea of founding ‘a Council of Europe’. See Bell, ‘Document No. 86,’ 229–33.

27. HL Deb 14 April 1943, 5th ser., vol. 127, cols. 172–9.

28. HL Deb 14 April 1943, 5th ser., vol. 127, cols. 189–190.

29. HL Deb 14 April 1943, 5th ser., vol. 127, col. 193.

30. Mayne and Pinder, Federal Union, 32.

31. HC Deb 2 December 1943, 5th ser., vol. 395. cols. 594–5.

32. ‘Empire Unity,’ The Times, 26 August 1943.

33. Emrys-Evans, HC Deb 02 December 1943, 5th ser., vol. 395. col. 595.

34. HC Deb 02 December 1943, 5th ser., vol. 395. col. 629.

35. Milani, ‘From Laissez-Faire,’ 13.

36. HC Deb 21 April 1944, 5th ser., vol. 399, col. 535.

37. HL Deb 11 October 1944, 5th ser., vol. 133, col. 494.

38. HC Deb 28 September 1944, 5th ser., vol. 403, col. 571.

39. HL Deb 06 February 1945, 5th ser., vol. 134, col. 913.

40. HL Deb 06 February 1945, 5th ser., vol. 134, cols. 914, 917–8.

41. HL Deb 06 February 1945, 5th ser., vol. 134, cols. 920–2.

42. HC Deb 23 November 1945, 5th ser., vol. 416, cols. 784–6.

43. Millington, HC Deb 23 November 1945, 5th ser., vol. 416, col. 818.

44. For details of the Briand plan, see Lipgens, ‘Europäische Einigungsidee’ [European unification idea], 46–89.

45. For example, Eden, HC Deb 22 November 1945, 5th ser., vol. 416, col. 612.

46. Earl of Perth, HL Deb 28 November 1945, 5th ser., vol. 138, cols. 84–5.

47. Usborne, HC Deb 22 November 1945, 5th ser., vol. 416, col. 681.

48. Meetings of foreign ministers in Potsdam (May 1946) and Paris (July 1946) ended without clear ideas for the future of Europe. See Lipgens, A History of European Integration, 292.

49. HL Deb 24 January 1946, 5th ser., vol. 138, col. 1099.

50. United Nations, Charter, article 52.

51. Viscount Stansgate, HL Deb 24 January 1946, 5th ser., vol. 138, cols. 1108–9.

52. In the British context federalism is often linked to persons described as continentals; its opposite was a ‘functional approach’. See Wurm, ‘VII: Great Britain,’ 629.

53. HC Deb 20 February 1946, 5th ser., vol. 419, col. 1251. In June 1946 he talked about a broader ‘Western Federal Union’ with cultural and political issues attached. HC Deb 04 June 1946, 5th ser., vol. 423, col. 1949. If attitudes towards federalism are defined, the broadest definition took a stance that would involve economy, defence, political issues and cultural issues, possibly also social issues unless they were linked to the political sphere. Different shades of opinion underlined the unclear nature of the integration scheme.

54. Usborne; Greenwood, HC Deb 27 February 1947, 5th ser., vol. 433, col. 2285.

55. See for example Wadsworth, HC Deb 04 June 1946, 5th ser., vol. 423, col. 1898.

56. A History of European Integration, 317.

57. Churchill’s position on federalism was rather vague. He spoke of the need to establish ‘a kind of United States of Europe’ with Franco-German reconciliation as the first step towards achieving it. For an analysis of the speech, see Klos, Churchill on Europe, 16.

58. Wurm, ‘Document No. 193,’ 662–6.

59. Lord Vansittart, HL Deb 03 December 1946, 5th ser., vol. 144, cols. 559–60.

60. Tilly, Coercion, 20–8.

61. HC Deb 15 May 1947, 5th ser., vol. 437, col. 1726.

62. HC Deb 19 June 1947, 5th ser., vol. 438, col. 2238.

63. Usborne; Boothby, HC Deb 19 June 1947, 5th ser., vol. 438, cols. 2318, 2320–1.

64. HC Deb 22 January 1948, 5th ser., vol 446, col. 395–6; Bevin, ‘The First Aim of British Foreign Policy,’ 1–2.

65. HC Deb 22 January 1948, 5th ser., vol. 446, col. 388.

66. ‘VII: Great Britain,’ 630, 643.

67. Mackay, HC Deb 18 March 1948, 5th ser., vol. 448, cols. 2302–3; ‘Plan to Save Europe’s Democracy.’ The Manchester Guardian, 13 March 1948; Morrison, HC Deb 08 April 1948, 5th ser., vol. 449, cols. 362–4.

68. Grantham, ‘British Labour,’ 443–4.

69. HC Deb 04 May 1948, 5th ser., vol. 450, col. 1108.

70. HC Deb 04 May 1948, 5th ser., vol. 450, col. 1217.

71. HC Deb 05 May 1948, 5th ser., vol. 450, col. 1273.

72. HC Deb 05 May 1948, 5th ser., vol. 450, cols. 1282–3, 1288, 1291.

73. HC Deb 05 May 1948, 5th ser., vol. 450, cols. 1317–9.

74. HC Deb 05 May 1948, 5th ser., vol. 450, cols. 1366–7.

75. HC Deb 22 September 1948, 5th ser., vol. 456, col. 987.

76. HC Deb 22 September 1948, 5th ser., vol. 456, col. 1013.

77. Practical issues included, for instance, the creation of a customs union or other agreements that would remove obstacles from cross-border trade or other issues that impacted different nations.

78. CM (48) 68, 4 November 1948, 64–5; Brook, ‘Notebook,’ 280–2.

79. Wurm, ‘Document No. 212,’ 712–6.

80. CP (48) 249, 2–4; Bevin, ‘Council of Europe,’ 1–6.

81. ‘From the FCO to the UK Delegation in Paris,’ 1–3; Attlee, HC Deb 27 June 1950, 5th series, vol. 476, cols. 2163–2164.