Bloomberg speech

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The Bloomberg speech was a party political address on Europe given in January 2013 by the then Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron. Although presented during the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition, it was given without the support of the then Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats.

The speech would be hugely significant politically as it was the first major Eurosceptic speech to be given by a serving Prime Minister since Margaret Thatcher‘s Bruges speech back in 1988 and would mark the beginning of a process that led to the 2015–2016 United Kingdom renegotiation of European Union membership which was then followed by the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum which was held in June 2016 after the Conservatives led by David Cameron unexpectedly won a small overall majority at the 2015 United Kingdom general election which would result in narrow majority vote in favour of leaving the bloc and the United Kingdom went on to leave the European Union seven years later in 2020 which ended 47 years of EU membership.

Composition[]

The speech was drafted by Edward Llewellyn, the Downing Street Chief of Staff, along with John Casson, Tim Kiddell and Helen Bower, with the opening few pages written by Clare Foges.^[1]

Content[]

Play media

Cameron's speech at Bloomberg in 2013, which gave him enough votes to stop the UKIP rise. However, his reforms to the EU and the result of his proposed referendum were not as he expected and he resigned during his second term.

The speech on 23 January 2013 at Bloomberg London covered the UK's future relationship with Europe. The Prime Minister called for fundamental reform of the European Union and called for an in–out referendum to be held on the UK's membership:^{[2][3][4][5][6]}

Simply asking the British people to carry on accepting a European settlement over which they have had little choice is a path to ensuring that when the question is finally put – and at some stage it will have to be – it is much more likely that the British people will reject the EU. That is why I am in favour of a referendum. I believe in confronting this issue – shaping it, leading the debate. Not simply hoping a difficult situation will go away.

Subsequent events[]

The Conservative Party included the referendum in their manifesto for the 2015 general election and it was then held in 2016.

See also[]

• 2015–2016 United Kingdom renegotiation of European Union membership
• 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum

References[]