Fresh Start was a grouping within the

British Conservative Party The Conservative Party, officially the Conservative and Unionist Party and also known colloquially as the Tories, is one of the two main political parties in the United Kingdom, along with the Labour Party. It is the current governing party, ...

opposed to the

Maastricht Treaty The Treaty on European Union, commonly known as the Maastricht Treaty, is the foundation treaty of the European Union (EU). Concluded in 1992 between the then-twelve Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Communities, ...

. It was founded by

Michael Spicer William Michael Hardy Spicer, Baron Spicer, (22 January 1943 – 29 May 2019) was a British politician and life peer who was a Conservative member of the House of Lords from 2010 until 2019. He served as Member of Parliament for West Worces ...

and its members included

Bill Cash Sir William Nigel Paul Cash (born 10 May 1940) is a British politician who has served as a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1984. A member of the Conservative Party, he was first elected for Stafford and then for Stone in Staffordshire in 1997. ...

James Cran James Douglas Cran (born 28 January 1944) is a British former Conservative Party politician. He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Beverley (1987–1997) and for Beverley and Holderness (1997–2005). Early life He went to Ruthrieston Scho ...

, Christopher Gill and

Roger Knapman Roger Maurice Knapman (born 20 February 1944) is a British politician who served as a Conservative MP before becoming Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP). Early life The son of Harry Arthur Blackmore Knapman, a farmer, and Joan Margot n ...

. 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). Euroscepticism in the United Kingdom Organisations associated with the Conservative Party (UK) {{UK-poli-stub