Margaret Thatcher was active in the Remain campaign in 1975. She and her advisers were the prime movers in founding the Single Market. Much as I disliked her I know that she wouldn't be so stupid as to vote to pull her country out of the institution she did so much to shape, with the knowledge that doing so would be economically damaging to the UK.
Harold MacMillan whose application for membership was vetoed by de Gaulle so many times! Edward Heath Roy Jenkins Margaret Thatcher Neil Kinnock John Major (who famously called the Eurosceptics "bastards")
Against EEC/EU Tony Benn (disliked but accepted the result of the first referendum) Hugh Gaitskill Peter Shore Enoch Powell
Blair and Brown were pro-Europe but anti the euro (possibly just as well)
According to the final part of Margaret Thatcher’s authorised biography, she wanted Britain to leave the EU, despite claims she would have voted Remain.
Once she had left Number 10, she said that the UK would be “better off outside” the EU.
It seems her views changed when she started in government. She felt the European single currency was trying to create a ‘super state’ The best answer was for us to be a kind of free-trade and non-interventionist ‘Singapore’ off Europe, seeking contract and understanding with the growth areas of the world.
It seems her views changed when she started in government.
That doesn't exactly tally with her major role in the founding of the Single Market while she was in government.
But I wonder if that's why the Ultras/ERG are so keen on the Singapore on Thames idea? She was bent on destroying industry and making the UK a world centre for financial services. Perhaps they see themselves as fulfilling her dream..
Doesn't sound very comfortable for the rest of us, though..