NORTHERN IRISH civil servants’ union Nipsa voted yesterday to back a Leave vote in Britain’s European Union membership referendum.

The union’s annual conference in Enniskillen voted by 68 to 58 in favour of the motion, backed by the outgoing general council (GC), with five abstentions.

GC member Patrick Mullholland said the EU was “openly supportive of privatisation,” adding that the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) being negotiated in secret by Brussels was “a gift to the US.”

Branch delegate Brian Booth, moving the motion, said the EU was “a bosses’ club built by bosses for bosses.”

Frank Cammock derided the EU as an undemocratic institution. “Let’s get out of it,” he said. “Bring back democracy.”

Ian Boersman, supporting the motion, said: “I’m not speaking against Europe. I’m speaking against unaccountable EU institutionalisation.”

The newly elected GC — with a significant number of new faces — will now decide how to take the motion forward.

Next Thursday, Belfast’s Queen’s University will host a trade union debate on the referendum.

Trade Unionists Against the EU chair Doug Nicholls and War on Want executive director John Hillary will go up against Irish Congress of Trade Unions assistant general secretary Peter Bunting and NI Council for Voluntary Action head of public affairs Lisa McElherron.

Meanwhile, Nipsa members gained support from parties across Northern Ireland’s political spectrum yesterday for their strike over Westminster plans to close six regional electoral offices across Northern Ireland.

Two busloads of delegates from the Enniskillen conference, led by general secretary Alison Millar, came to bolster the Omagh picket line.