The differences between the Conservative MPs on opposing sides of today’s referendum debate are, therefore, differences of degree rather than differences of principle. With some notable exceptions – the former Home Secretary and Chancellor, Ken Clarke, being the most prominent – there are very few Conservative MPs who could legitimately be described as europhiles. Recent research from Tim Bale and Philip Cowley has revealed that only one-quarter of Conservative MPs believe that the UK has ‘greatly benefited from being a member of the EU’ (as opposed to ninety per cent of Labour MPs), and tended to confirm the suspicion that contemporary debates around the EU revolve far more around inter-party divisions than intra-party splits. Today’s Conservative Party is rather closer to a spectrum of scepticism, stretching from ‘soft’ eurosceptics (Cameron, Osborne) to hardcore europhobes (Cash, Bone), than the divided and dysfunctional party of the early 1990s.