Prior to August 2005, Britain in Europe was the main British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 pro-European

Pro-European

Pro-European is a subjective term applied to a person who supports the idea of European unification and generally supports further 'deepening' of European integration, specifically in the context of political argument over the current and future status of the EU and its policies.-The Pro-European...

 pressure group. Despite connections to Labour

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 and the Liberal Democrats, it was a cross-party organisation with supporters from many different political backgrounds. Initially founded to campaign for a “yes” vote for the euro

Euro

The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...

, it then progressed to support a “yes” vote for the referendum on the European Constitution

Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe

The Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe , , was an unratified international treaty intended to create a consolidated constitution for the European Union...

.

The organisation was launched in 1999 by Tony Blair

Tony Blair

Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...

, Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown

James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...

, Kenneth Clarke

Kenneth Clarke

Kenneth Harry "Ken" Clarke, QC, MP is a British Conservative politician, currently Member of Parliament for Rushcliffe, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. He was first elected to Parliament in 1970; and appointed a minister in Edward Heath's government, in 1972, and is one of...

, Michael Heseltine

Michael Heseltine

Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, CH, PC is a British businessman, Conservative politician and patron of the Tory Reform Group. He was a Member of Parliament from 1966 to 2001 and was a prominent figure in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major...

 and Charles Kennedy

Charles Kennedy

Charles Peter Kennedy is a British Liberal Democrat politician, who led the Liberal Democrats from 9 August 1999 until 7 January 2006 and is currently a Member of Parliament for the Ross, Skye and Lochaber constituency....

. In 2003, the organisation formally linked itself with the pro-European organisation, the European Movement

European Movement

The European Movement International is a lobbying association that coordinates the efforts of associations and national councils with the goal of promoting European integration, and disseminating information about it.-History:...

. The director of Britain in Europe was Simon Buckby and later Lucy Powell. The director of communications was the Scottish Liberal Democrat politician Danny Alexander

Danny Alexander

Daniel Grian Alexander is a British Liberal Democrat politician who has been Chief Secretary to the Treasury since 2010. He has been the Member of Parliament for the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey constituency since 2005....

.

On 17 August 2005, the group was wound up following the French and Dutch No votes on the proposed European Constitution. Its resources were given to the European Movement.

Publications

All are PDF

Portable Document Format

Portable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....

 files

• Straight Bananas: 201 anti-European myths exploded (543kb)
• There's something about UKIP (223kb)
• The Truth is Out There (865kb)

Backers

The organisation disclosed the names of individuals and companies from which it received donations of more than £5,000, in line with the requirements of the Political Parties Act, although it was not a political party and was not obliged to do so.

List of backers

• amicus
  Amicus
  Amicus was the United Kingdom's second-largest trade union, and the largest private sector union, formed by the merger of Manufacturing Science and Finance, the AEEU agreed in 2001, and two smaller unions, UNIFI and the GPMU...
  
  
• Alstom
  Alstom
  Alstom is a large multinational conglomerate which holds interests in the power generation and transport markets. According to the company website, in the years 2010-2011 Alstom had annual sales of over €20.9 billion, and employed more than 85,000 people in 70 countries. Alstom's headquarters are...
  
   UK Ltd
• Rod Aldridge
  Rod Aldridge
  Rod Aldridge OBE is the Founder and former Executive Chairman of Capita, a British company specialising in business process outsourcing, and currently Chairman of The Aldridge Foundation...
  
  
• BAE Systems
  BAE Systems
  BAE Systems plc is a British multinational defence, security and aerospace company headquartered in London, United Kingdom, that has global interests, particularly in North America through its subsidiary BAE Systems Inc. BAE is among the world's largest military contractors; in 2009 it was the...
  
  
• BMP DDB
  Boase Massimi Pollitt
  Boase Massimi Pollitt is an advertising agency founded in October 1968 by Martin Boase, Gabe Massimi, and Stanley Pollitt.The three founders had previously worked at Pritchard Wood, but went their own way after failing to buy the company from its parent...
  
  
• BAT
  British American Tobacco
  British American Tobacco p.l.c. is a global tobacco company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s second largest quoted tobacco company by global market share , with a leading position in more than 50 countries and a presence in more than 180 countries...
  
  
• Kumar Bhattacharyya
• Winfried Bischoff
  Winfried Bischoff
  Sir Winfried Franz Wilhen "Win" Bischoff is an Anglo-German banker, who is currently chairman of Lloyds Banking Group plc. He was formerly chairman of Citigroup and previously served as interim CEO of the same company in 2007. He was succeeded as CEO by Vikram Pandit on 11 December 2007. Bischoff...
  
  
• bmi
  Bmi (airline)
  British Midland Airways Limited , is an airline based at Donington Hall in Castle Donington in the United Kingdom, close to East Midlands Airport, and a fully owned subsidiary of Lufthansa...
  
   (British Midland)
• British Telecommunications plc
• Bunzl
  Bunzl
  Bunzl plc is a multinational distribution and outsourcing company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The company is primarily a distributor of a diverse range of non-food consumable products including food packaging, cleaning and hygiene supplies, personal protective equipment and carrier...
  
   plc
• Cookson Group
  Cookson Group
  Cookson Group plc is a leading materials technology company headquartered in London which provides materials, processes and services to customers worldwide. The Company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index....
  
   plc
• Dyson Appliances Ltd
  Dyson (appliances)
  Dyson Ltd is a British technology company, founded in 1992 by Sir James Dyson, which designs and manufactures vacuum cleaners, hand driers, bladeless fans and heaters. It sells machines in over 50 countries and employs 3,100 people worldwide. The company prides itself on engineering products which...
  
  
• Ernst & Young
  Ernst & Young
  Ernst & Young is one of the largest professional services networks in the world and one of the "Big Four" accountancy firms, along with Deloitte, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers ....
  
   LLP
• European Movement
  European Movement
  The European Movement International is a lobbying association that coordinates the efforts of associations and national councils with the goal of promoting European integration, and disseminating information about it.-History:...
  
  
• Lord Evans of Watford
• Ford Motor Company
  Ford Motor Company
  Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...
  
  
• Chris Gent
  Chris Gent
  Sir Christopher Charles Gent is a British businessman, He is the former chief executive officer of Vodafone, a British mobile phone company. He is currently the chairman of GlaxoSmithKline, the world's second largest pharmaceutical, biological, and healthcare company.-Early life:Born in 1948 in...
  
  
• Christopher Haskins, Baron Haskins of Skidby
  Christopher Haskins, Baron Haskins of Skidby
  Christopher Robin Haskins, Baron Haskins , is a British/Irish businessman, and former member of the British Labour Party....
  
  
• Lord Hollick
• Lord Howe of Aberavon
• ICL plc
• Kellogg's
• Kimberly-Clark
  Kimberly-Clark
  Kimberly-Clark Corporation is an American corporation that produces mostly paper-based consumer products. Kimberly-Clark brand name products include "Kleenex" facial tissue, "Kotex" feminine hygiene products, "Cottonelle", Scott and Andrex toilet paper, Wypall utility wipes, "KimWipes"...
  
   Ltd
• KPMG
  KPMG
  KPMG is one of the largest professional services networks in the world and one of the Big Four auditors, along with Deloitte, Ernst & Young and PwC. Its global headquarters is located in Amstelveen, Netherlands....
  
  
• Lord Marshall of Knightsbridge
• Mindshare UK
• Nestlé
  Nestlé
  Nestlé S.A. is the world's largest food and nutrition company. Founded and headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland, Nestlé originated in a 1905 merger of the Anglo-Swiss Milk Company, established in 1867 by brothers George Page and Charles Page, and Farine Lactée Henri Nestlé, founded in 1866 by Henri...
  
   (UK) Ltd
• Gulam Noon
  Gulam Noon
  Gulam Kaderbhoy Noon, Baron Noon MBE is a British businessman originally from India. He is of Rajput extraction.-Career:He has founded and operated a number of food product companies in Southall, London, specialising in Indian cuisine...
  
  
• Lindsay Owen-Jones
  Lindsay Owen-Jones
  Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones, KBE, , born in Wallasey, Cheshire to a Welsh family, was the Chairman and CEO of the cosmetics and beauty company L'Oréal.- Education :...
  
  
• Philips Electronics (UK) Ltd
• PricewaterhouseCoopers
  PricewaterhouseCoopers
  PricewaterhouseCoopers is a global professional services firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest professional services firm measured by revenues and one of the "Big Four" accountancy firms....
  
  
• Reuters
  Reuters
  Reuters is a news agency headquartered in New York City. Until 2008 the Reuters news agency formed part of a British independent company, Reuters Group plc, which was also a provider of financial market data...
  
   Group plc
• Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust
• Lord Sainsbury of Turville
• Colin Sharman, Baron Sharman
  Colin Sharman, Baron Sharman
  Colin Morven Sharman, Baron Sharman OBE , is the British chairman of Aviva Group and former chairman of KPMG International.He was educated at Bishop Wordsworth's School in Salisbury and qualified as a chartered accountant in 1965...
  
  
• Siemens
  Siemens AG
  Siemens AG is a German multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Munich, Germany. It is the largest Europe-based electronics and electrical engineering company....
  
   Plc
• Barry Townsley
  Barry Townsley
  Barry Stephen Townsley CBE is a British stockbroker. He sold his stockbroking business, Townsley & Co., to the Dutch private bank Insinger de Beaufort....
  
  
• Adair Turner
• Unilever
  Unilever
  Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products....
  
   plc
• United News & Media plc
• Xerox
  Xerox
  Xerox Corporation is an American multinational document management corporation that produced and sells a range of color and black-and-white printers, multifunction systems, photo copiers, digital production printing presses, and related consulting services and supplies...
  
   Ltd
• Wrigley UK Ltd