The Labour Party leader has said that a British EU exit would be “particularly bad” for the North of Ireland.
Ed Miliband was speaking at Ulster University in Belfast yesterday, on a brief visit to the North ahead of this May’s elections.
The threat of Britain exiting the EU, Miliband said, would “be bad for the whole of Britain but particularly bad for the whole of Northern Ireland.”
He attributed this to the North’s land border with the Republic, which he believes gives residents of the North a knowledge of the importance of the relationship and “closeness” with the EU.
Mr Miliband was speaking at the Labour-established Heenan-Anderson Commission, which reports on deprivation in the North of Ireland.
The commission held a conference on poverty yesterday where Miliband made the comments on a British EU exit.
He went on to reaffirm Labour’s commitment to building on the relationship between Britain and Europe, as well as committing to tackling the North’s economy in particular.
Mr Miliband told the audience at the university that the North has a higher rate of people living on below the minimum living wage than mainland Britain – a priority for the Labour Party heading into the general election in May.
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