ABSTRACT
The surprise outcome of the May 2010 general election, a coalition between the staunchly pro-European Union (EU) Liberal Democrats and the increasingly Eurosceptic Conservatives, looked set to put the European question centre stage in British politics for the first time in decades. The result of the 2010 general election came as a shock to the pundits: the first hung Parliament in a generation; a coalition Government for the first time since the end of the Second World War; and Liberals in government for the first time in nearly a century. The European Union Act 2011 enshrined proposals for a 'referendum lock', stipulating that any subsequent transfers of competence to the EU were to be subject to a referendum. The impact of the coalition's policies would highlight disparities between various communities, with those feeling 'left behind' more prone to oppose EU membership.
