Fresh Start was a grouping within the
British Conservative Party opposed to the
Maastricht Treaty. It was founded by
Michael Spicer and its members included
Bill Cash,
James Cran,
Christopher Gill and
Roger Knapman. In the mid-1990s over fifty Conservative MPs were members.
They organised votes against John Major's government and in all they voted against the government 985 times and abstained 1,515 times in an unsuccessful attempt to stop the Maastricht Treaty being ratified.
References
- Anthony Forster, Euroscepticism in Contemporary British Politics (Routledge, 2002).