NI First Minister says country should receive special EU status

The second-highest ranking politician in Northern Ireland has said that the region should be able to push for a special case membership of the European Union after it voted clearly to stay in the bloc.

While a slight majority of the UK voted to leave the EU, both Scotland and NI had clear majorities which voted for Remain.

In an interview with the Guardian, Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness said that the governments in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have a responsibility to act to ensure the former does not lose the benefits of staying in the EU.

"As things sit at the moment we are going to suffer big time," McGuinness said. "Theresa May says ‘Brexit means Brexit’, but so far as we are concerned Brexit means disaster for the people of Ireland."

Initially nationalists in Belfast preferred to stay within the bloc, and unionists were for a strict Brexit, but McGuinness said both sides of the community agree on the need for special status.

"There is a large amount of discontent, including within the unionist community, about how this Tory-led Westminster administration is being so cavalier in disregarding the impact of what they are planning."

McGuinness also called upon the Irish government to back their neighbour's case, amid fears that the ongoing peace process in the area could be jeopardised by NI's exit from Europe.

"There has to be an island of Ireland solution that we can live with, and it is critical that we have an Irish government fighting our corner, so the big challenge in the next few weeks is whether the government in the north and the south can come to a common position."

The British government is currently deliberating as to the correct course of action take before prime minister Theresa May triggers Article 50 some time in the new year.