Trade, Tory splits and electoral defeat – is history about to repeat itself?

Parliament, we are told, is in uncharted territory: the government looks unable to get the Prime Minister’s peculiar brand of Brexit through Parliament, and the House of Commons remains unready to realise the decision of the referendum three years ago. The European Question, that bête noire of Conservative collegiality, has once more split the party. While it is completely unclear what will happen in the near future, the present impasse is not entirely new. The latest episode of The Long View, just broadcast on Radio 4, looks at parallels – including the role played by The Spectator. And there’s quite a story to tell.

​For there was a time, long before the EU came into being, when a Conservative Prime Minister was faced with intense pressure – from within and without his party – about Britain’s economic relationship with the rest of the world. Should the country continue its traditional commitment to free trade, or give preferential treatment to the British Empire by raising tariffs against the rest of the world? That issue divided the Conservatives, broke apart the government’s coalition with a unionist party, forced the Prime Minister to resign, and kept the Tories out of direct power for two decades.