Paper Titles & Abstracts

The push for a referendum on the future of the United Kingdom's membership of the EU has been driven primarily by increasing euroscepticism among Conservative MPs and the threat posed to the Conservative vote by the rise of the UK Independence Party (UKIP). As such, the positions of smaller regional parties tend to be overlooked. This paper explores the Northern Ireland case, conscious that the parties' MPs may as in past votes on 'Europe' (notably Maastricht) be of major significance and, for certain, will play influential roles in shaping the debate in Northern Ireland in any future referendum. As the paper demonstrates, the region's parties have adopted a range of positions include soft and hard euroscepticism and strong advocacy of continued EU membership and further integration. Across a range of Westminster debates the former has translated into solid support for and alignment with eurosceptic rebels on the government backbenches. On the other hand, supporters of UK membership have generally desisted from engagement in debates. If such behaviour is replicated in any referendum debate in Northern Ireland, the tenor of the debate seems set to be more eurosceptic than in the rest of the UK.