Paget was initially supportive of British entry into the European Economic Community (EEC), and in 1954 became Secretary of the UK Council of the European Movement. But in later years his views changed: in 1971 he was one of a majority of Labour MPs to vote against membership, and during the 1975 EEC referendum campaign he gave a speech in the House of Lords in which he stated that the EEC was impotent in the face of the Soviet threat, and in the resulting vote a day later was one of only 20 peers to vote against remaining in the Community.