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For any copyright, please send me a message. Mr Churchill is often commended as one of the greatest prime ministers in British history. He supported the idea of European unity during the Forties, before the European Union had come into existence – but he did not necessarily support the idea of Britain being part of such a bloc. He even received a prize in 1956, when he was in retirement as prime minister, for his contribution to European Unity called the Charlemagne. The former prime minister was also officially recognised as one of the seven influential leaders who helped established the foundations of the EU – he is even listed as one of the ‘Founding fathers of the European Union’. Yet, as Kevin O’Rourke pointed out in his history book ‘A Short History of Brexit: From Backstop to Brentry’, the war hero later resisted the idea when Britain was attempting to enter the bloc. Mr O’Rourke explained: “On 14 August 1961 the ageing Winston Churchill wrote that if Britain ever had to choose between its historical role as leader of the British Commonwealth and Europe, he would ‘choose the Empire and Commonwealth over Europe every time.’” This initially appears to be a contradiction. In September 1946, Mr Churchill delivered a speech in Zurich which called for “a United States of Europe”, in an effort to deter any future conflicts between the neighbouring nations. He prioritised reconciliation between France and Germany. As Quentin Peel explained in The Financial Times in 2016, his words “inspired a European movement that led to the creation of the Common Market, and, ultimately, to today’s European Union”. Yet, Mr Peel added: “He declared that Great Britain and the British Commonwealth along with the US and USSR, should be ‘friends and sponsors’ of the project. He did not talk of the UK becoming a member itself.” Mr Churchill also wrote in an essay – believed to be from 1930 – “We are with Europe, but not of it. We are linked but not comprised.” In his history of Brexit, Mr O’Rourke explained: “Conservatives had been at the forefront of the united Europe movement of the 1940s, and many were still strongly pro-European. “It was the Labour Party that was the more eurosceptic of the two parties [at that time].” Yet, there were still eurosceptics within the Conservative Party. They wanted Britain to be at the forefront of a united Europe which would reflect the British Commonwealth. The later objections to Britain’s repeated attempts to join the bloc in the Sixties were based on the idea that the European organisation was already in a federal structure. Still, Harold Macmillan was keen for the UK to be part of the emerging European community. As Mr O’Rourke pointed out, Mr Churchill wrote his message about the Commonweal
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