An increasing number of Britons are rushing to apply for Irish passports to be able to remain EU citizens after Britain voted to leave the bloc on Thursday, officials say. “Following the UK referendum, there has been a spike in interest in Irish passports in Northern Ireland, Great Britain and elsewhere, although there has been some exaggeration of demand,” Irish Foreign Minister Charlie Flanagan said in a statement on Monday.

On Friday, a spokeswoman for the UK Post Office, tasked with handling passport applications, said that there has been a surge in the number of Irish passport seekers from Britain. “We have seen an unusually high number of people in Northern Ireland seeking Irish passport applications, though we do not have exact numbers or a breakdown by branch,” the spokeswoman said.

Those Britons with an Irish parent or grandparent and those, who were born in the Irish Republic or Northern Ireland, are entitled to an Irish passport. According to statistics, there are approximately six million people of Irish ancestry living in Britain. Being an EU citizen offers Britons a number of advantages. They can enjoy free movement rights, seek employment in other EU states without having a work permit, use public healthcare facilities across the bloc and benefit from welfare and other rights.

Thursday’s vote result has sent shock waves through the political and economic sectors both in the UK and in Europe. It has even led people to run a petition to call for a second referendum as a number of those, who voted to leave the bloc, have changed their minds. In Northern Ireland, post offices have run out of application forms and the Irish embassy in London has filed more than 4,000 passport inquiries in comparison to the 200 it usually receives on a normal day, according to a diplomatic source.

According to Flanagan, “The increased interest clearly points to a sense of concern among some UK passport holders that the rights they enjoy as EU citizens are about to abruptly end.” He warned that the sudden and unnecessary increase in applications would significantly increase pressure on turnaround times at passport offices. The spike even prompted a member of Northern Ireland’s largest Irish nationalist party, Sinn Fein, to ask the government in Dublin to open a passport office in Belfast to meet the soaring demands.

Following the release of the vote result, British Prime Minister David Cameron announced his resignation. “Britain is leaving the European Union but we must not turn our back on Europe or the rest of the world,” Cameron said on Monday during the first parliament session since the Brexit vote.

Presstv

Germany’s foreign minister has censured war games by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Eastern Europe, saying such drills will not bring security to the region and will rather stoke tensions with Russia. Frank-Walter Steinmeier made the remarks in an interview with the German Bild am Sonntag newspaper, whose extracts were published on Saturday.

“What we shouldn’t do now is inflame the situation further through saber-rattling and warmongering,” Steinmeier said, adding, “We are well-advised to not create pretexts to renew an old confrontation.” NATO launched the Anakonda-16 maneuver on June 7, simulating a Russian attack on Poland. The two-week-long exercise involves some 31,000 troops, dozens of ships and fighter jets, along with 3,000 vehicles.

“Whoever believes that a symbolic tank parade on the alliance’s eastern border will bring security, is mistaken,” Steinmeier said.

Presstv

UK Prime Minister David Cameron is likely to step down the day after the upcoming referendum on Britain’s membership in the European Union (EU), a member of the British Parliament says, noting that more MPs are considering to join the Leave campaign.

Even if the Brexit campaign fails to prevail in the June 23 vote, Cameron’s government is not likely to clinch a victory by a margin bigger than 10 percent, the Daily Mirror reported Sunday. “That would let him leave in a sensible fashion rather than the bloody mess that it could be,” a backbench MP was quoted as saying by the daily.

According to the report, at least 25 Tory MPs are totally committed to the Leave campaign and can give Cameron a hard time in the build-up to the vote. The number is expected to rise as the voting nears. Last week Tory MPs Andrew Bridgen and Nadine Dorries said that the premier had effectively lost his parliamentary support after resorting to “lies” and “outrageous” claims in his bid to persuade British voters to back the Remain campaign.

Bridgen revealed that at least 50 MPs – the number needed to call a confidence vote – were on the ready to challenge Cameron’s leadership, adding that a vote on the prime minister’s future was “probably highly likely” after the referendum. Plotters of Cameron’s ouster inside his own party name leading Tory MP David Davis, his rival in the last general election, as their leader.

Presstv

British Prime Minister David Cameron has hit out at ‘Brexiters’ who grilled him during a live TV debate on the future of the United Kingdom in the European Union. The debate aired by Sky News shows Cameron criticizing UK’s possible exit from the EU as an act of “economic self-harm.” Audience in the debate, however, slammed Cameron, accusing him of scaremongering over the impact of quitting the 28-nation bloc.

On thorny issues such as immigration, Cameron said a Brexit was not the solution. “There are good ways of controlling migration and there are bad ways,” Cameron said. On economy, he lashed out at critics of Britain’s continued membership in the EU, saying, “It would be madness to try to do that by trashing our economy and pulling out of the single market.” Cameron conceded, however, that he often found dealings with the EU frustrating. “Sometimes this organization drives me crazy,” he said. “But do I sit there thinking Britain would be better off if we left? Are we quitters? Absolutely not.”

Britain will vote on June 23 on whether or not 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 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.

On the spectrum, Britons who favor withdrawal believe that outside the bloc, the UK would be better off in conducting its own trade negotiations, better able to control immigration and free from what they believe to be excessive EU regulations and bureaucracy.

Presstv