PM Cameron urges Britain’s youths to vote in referendum
Print Edition
BRITISH Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday urged young Britons to vote in a June 23 referendum on membership of the European Union, warning that leaving the bloc would hit them the hardest.
With public opinion evenly split, youth voters are expected to play a key role in the vote’s outcome because polling shows they are more pro-European, but less inclined to vote.
Cameron, who wants Britain to stay in the 28-country bloc, was speaking at the launch of a campaign targeted specifically at young voters.
“Whatever you do ... make sure you vote. It is your voice, it’s your future, it’s vital for you, vital for our country,” he said.
The intervention is designed to increase voter turnout and thereby boost the prospects of a flagging “In” campaign which has ceded ground to eurosceptics in some recent opinion polls.
But polling shows younger voters tend to back the center-left Labour party and Cameron has endured a difficult few weeks following a budget row, accusations of failing to protect British steel, and questions over his family’s tax arrangements.
Low turnout was seen as one of the factors behind a defeat for the Dutch government on Wednesday in a referendum that rejected an EU treaty on deepening integration with Ukraine.
Asked about the outcome of that vote, Cameron said there were no direct comparisons with the British referendum.
He said young people’s job prospects would be hard hit by an EU exit.
“You have the most to gain by staying in ... and you also have the most to lose if we leave,” he said.
But “Out” campaigners said that money sent to Brussels under Britain’s membership terms was adding to the national debt that would have to be paid off by young workers.
Eurosceptics were also angered by the government’s decision to spend 9.3 million pounds (US$13 million) on a leaflet setting out “why it believes remaining in the EU is the best decision for the UK.”
“This is not the facts, it is a misleading government propaganda,” said Vote Leave chairwoman Gisela Stuart.
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