Blair and Major: Brexit threatens UK unity

BELFAST (Reuters) – Tony Blair and John Major will say on Thursday that a vote to leave the European Union on June 23 would jeopardize the unity of the United Kingdom by undermining the peace in Northern Ireland and stoking calls for Scottish independence.

 

Speaking together in Northern Ireland, the two former British prime ministers will warn that the “unity of the UK itself is on the ballot paper”, the BBC reported.

 

Major and Blair, who both played important roles in the Northern Ireland peace process in the 1990s, will say there is a serious risk of a second independence referendum in Scotland and that an out vote could undermine stability in Northern Ireland.

 

“We understand that, although today Northern Ireland is more stable and more prosperous than ever, that stability is poised on carefully constructed foundations,” Blair will say, according to the BBC.

 

“And so we are naturally concerned at the prospect of anything that could put those foundations at risk,” Blair will say.

 

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