DHAKA: Sir John Major and Tony Blair warned a vote to leave the EU will ‘jeopardize the unity’ of the UK as they campaigned together in Northern Ireland.

They suggested a Leave vote may re-open Scotland’s independence issue and put Northern Ireland’s ‘future at risk’ by threatening its current stability, reports the BBC.

But Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers said support for the peace process there was ‘rock solid’.

She said it would be ‘highly irresponsible’ to suggest otherwise.

The DUP’s deputy leader Nigel Dodds agreed, saying the ex-PMs’ comments were ‘dangerous, destabilizing and... should not be happening’.

Elsewhere in the EU referendum debate:

The former Conservative and Labor prime ministers, who were instrumental in the Northern Ireland peace process in the 1990s, hit the campaign trail there as Remain campaigners attempted to make the future of the UK a key question in the 23 June referendum on EU membership.

BDST: 2216 HRS, JUN 09, 2016
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