Brexit vote to ‘jeopardize the unity’ of UK: Major and Blair

Former British Prime Ministers John Major and Tony Blair have warned a vote to leave the European Union (EU) will "jeopardize the unity" of the United Kingdom.

Campaigning together in Northern Ireland on Thursday, the former Conservative and Labour prime ministers suggested a Leave vote could re-open the issue of Scotland's independence and put Northern Ireland's "future at risk”.

The two politicians played important roles in the Northern Ireland peace process in the 1990s.

Major said if Scotland found itself out of the EU, there was a "serious risk" of another independence referendum and the result would be different to the one in 2014, when Scots voted 55-45 percent against independence.

He argued that a Brexit vote would be a "historic mistake" that could 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,” he stated, adding that a vote to leave the EU would put Ireland "on the other side of the table" to Britain in negotiations.

Meanwhile, a vote to leave the EU could negatively affect Northern Ireland's prosperity and its political arrangements.

Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers slammed the two prime ministers for bringing up the issue of Northern Ireland, saying support for the peace process there was "rock solid".

Northern Ireland first minister and DUP leader Arlene Foster called the statements of Major and Blair "rather sad".

"I do find it rather disgraceful for two prime ministers who know full well the importance of the peace process here in Northern Ireland to come over here and suggest that a vote in a particular direction is going to undermine that,” she told reporters.

Britain will vote on June 23 on the significant issue of whether it should stay in the EU. The decision has far-reaching consequences for both the country and the bloc.

Membership of the European Union has been a controversial issue in the UK since the country joined the then European Economic Community in 1973.

Those in favor of a British withdrawal from the EU argue that outside the bloc, London would be better positioned to conduct its own trade negotiations, better able to control immigration and free from what they believe to be excessive EU regulations and bureaucracy.

Those in favor of remaining in the bloc argue that leaving it would risk the UK's prosperity, diminish its influence over world affairs, and result in trade barriers between the UK and the EU.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently said that there were no economic benefits for the UK to leave the EU, while the Bank of England has warned that the country’s economy would slow sharply, and possibly even enter a short recession.

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