A pro-Brexit campaign poster in Belfast.
By Anthony Neeson
A vote for “Brexit” would put Northern Ireland’s “future at risk,” this according to two former British prime ministers.
On June 23 voters in the United Kingdom will decide whether the UK stays in the European Union (EU) or leaves.
Opinion polls suggest the vote is on a knife-edge.
As the campaign steps up a gear in the final run-in, former prime ministers John Major and Tony Blair arrived in Derry and warned that a leave vote could “jeopardize the unity” of the UK.
Sir John Major said that if Britain votes to leave the EU it could lead to another referendum in Scotland on independence.
He added that a vote to leave would also risk “destabilizing the complicated and multi-layered constitutional settlement that underpins the present stability in Northern Ireland.”
“It would throw all the pieces of the constitutional jigsaw up into the air again, and no-one could be certain where they would land.”
Tony Blair said: “We understand that, although today Northern Ireland is more stable and more prosperous than ever, that stability is poised on carefully constructed foundations.
“And so we are naturally concerned at the prospect of anything that could put those foundations at risk.”
Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Theresa Villiers, who is campaigning for a Leave vote, said the peace process was “rock solid” while DUP leader Arlene Foster, whose party is also on the Leave side, said the intervention from the two former prime ministers was “rather sad.”
Meanwhile, a former head of the World Trade Organization said a vote to leave the EU would be “an act of wanton destruction” of Northern Ireland.
Peter Sutherland, a Dublin native, said Northern Ireland would suffer more than any other part of the UK.
“Those who invest in Ireland, north or south, are doing so because it provides them with the manufacturing base to sell to the European Union,” he said.
“The uncertainty, the borders created by Britain leaving, and the inevitable period of prolonged negotiation, will lead to a drying up of investment.
“It is, to me, incredible that any political force in Northern Ireland could conceivably consider [the UK leaving the EU] could be a good thing for Northern Ireland.”
He added: “If in some perverted way there is an ideological desire to recreate that border, it’s an act that would be incredibly foolish and very damaging.”
