Uploaded June 2025 | Updated September 2026, 8 hours ago
These diaries provide an incredible insight into the Conservative party during the tumultuous Heath administration and the early Thatcher years in opposition. The Heath years were dominated by two issues that haunted the Conservative party for some considerable time. The first, for which Marten was best known, was the battle over Britain’s entry to the EEC. The second was Heath’s policy U-turns from which Thatcherism sprang.
Neil Marten was Britain’s first Brexiteer. He organised the most determined parliamentary campaign to oppose Britain’s entry to the EEC, chaired the ‘No’ campaign in the 1975 referendum to leave the EEC, and continued agitation in parliament against ever closer European union.
These diaries provide an incredible insight into the Conservative party during the tumultuous Heath administration and the early Thatcher years in opposition. The Heath years were dominated by two issues that haunted the Conservative party for some considerable time. The first, for which Marten was best known, was the battle over Britain’s entry to the EEC. The second was Heath’s policy U-turns from which Thatcherism sprang.
Neil Marten was Britain’s first Brexiteer. He organised the most determined parliamentary campaign to oppose Britain’s entry to the EEC, chaired the ‘No’ campaign in the 1975 referendum to leave the EEC, and continued agitation in parliament against ever closer European union.
