Referendum Party

Single-issue political party formed by the billionaire, Anglo-French financier, James Goldsmith, whose aim was to force the government into holding a plebiscite on the issue of whether Britain should be part of a federal Europe or a bloc of independent trading nations. Its founding was announced in November 1994 and it was formally launched in October 1996.

The party attracted several high-profile defectors from the right- wing of the Conservative Party, including Alan Walters, an economics adviser during the 1980s to Prime Minister Thatcher, and, briefly, the MP, George Gardiner. However, despite extensive media advertising, funded by Goldsmith, who invested 20 million of his personal fortune, the party's support in national opinion polls failed to rise above 1%. In the May 1997 general election, only 30 of its 545 candidates saved their deposits and, in capturing 810,000 votes, the party is believed to have been a decisive factor in the loss of 20 Conservative Party seats. Goldsmith died in July 1997.