Tony Blair and John Major in Northern Ireland to call for EU Remain vote

Tony Blair and his predecessor at 10 Downing Street John Major spoke to an audience made up mainly of school pupils at Magee College at the University of Ulster in Londonderry.

The one-time Labour and Conservative premiers spoke about impact of Brexit on Northern Ireland.

Professor Deirdre Heenan, Provost Coleraine and Magee, welcomed the pair and said that they had been “instrumental in the peace process that has transformed this city and we would like to thank them for that”.

Mr Major talked in general about the referendum but said it “also about the people in every part of the United Kingdom ... a union of four countries”.

He said that in the Scottish referendum of 2014 there had been a last-ditch UK-wide appeal to the Scots to stick together.

“Against the advice of the Scottish National Party, the Scots did that,” he said.

The result had settled the matter for a generation and beyond, he said, with one qualification – the scenario in which Scotland votes to stay in the EU and the UK as whole votes to leave.

That would lead to the serious risk of new referendum, and if the UK is outside the EU “I can well envisage a different result”.

“To everyone who is wavering,” Mr Major said, “please understand the potential, perhaps the likely consequences”.

He added; “I say without a shadow of doubt in my mind that the wrong result on June 23 will affect our union and will jeopardise our unity.”

Mr Major said that with regard to Northern Ireland, no other issue had preoccupied his premiership more than the bid to get peace in the Province. He had been involved in the 1993 Downing Street declaration before the 1994 IRA ceasefire, leading to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement when Mr Blair was prime minister.

It would be a historic mistake to do anything that destabilise the carefully achieved peace that had been achieved.

“That is what a British exit from the EU would do,” he said. “It wld throw all the pieces from the con jigsaw in the air and no-one would be certain where they might land.”

Mr Blair also spoke about the peace in Northern Ireland that had been achieved and the “stronger and better than ever before” relations between Britain and Ireland.

He spoke about the Common Travel Area (CTA) between the UK and the Republic of Ireland, that has existed since the 1920s.

“If we as the UK vote to leave we will be in a new unique situation,” he said, “The border of the Republic becomes the border of the EU.”

There would still free movement of people within the EU, he said, but if the CTA was retained “then someone from any part of the EU can come from the south then to the north”.

He said that in that scenario, there would be “either border controls on the border between north and south ...

[or the] only alternative would then be to have them between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK which would plainly be unacceptable as well”.

It was, he said, “not a small detail” but one that goes to the heart of the Brexit debate.

Leaving the UK “would put our Union at risk, be a deeply damaging, a reckless course”.

The referendum outcome was “of particular importance to people of Northern Ireland”, he said, which was “why I am proud to be here with my predecessor John Major”.

The visit and the arguments of the two prime ministers were criticised by supporters of Brexit. Kate Hoey, the Northern Ireland-born Labour MP and Leave supporter, said: “John Major and Tony Blair today join a list of yesterday’s politicians determined to spread fear in Northern Ireland.”

She added: “As both ex-Prime Ministers know, the Good Friday Agreement described Northern Ireland’s position within the UK as ‘the settled will of the people of Northern Ireland’. All polls show that this remains the case, and Brexit will not change this in any way.”

The two former PMs are the latest high profile visitors to speak about the impact of Brexit on Northern Ireland. Earlier this week the Chancellor George Osborne was in Warrenpoint to talk about the effect a UK withdrawal from the EU would have on cross-border business and trade.

Last week Lord Mandelson was in Belfast, where he issued similar warnings.

Prominent supporters of Brexit have also visited Northern Ireland, including Daniel Hannan MEP who debated with Lord Mandelson on his visit. Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson are among the other Leave supporters who have travelled to Northern Ireland as part of their campaigning.