'If you snooze, you'll lose': Chuka Umunna issues warning to students over EU referendum

Chuka Umunna
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Students were today warned “if you snooze, you’ll lose” as they were urged to drag themselves out of bed on June 23 to vote for Britain to stay in the EU.

Senior Labour MP Chuka Umunna also stressed that pro-Europe students risked a “hangover that lasts a lifetime” if they failed to vote and Brexit campaigners succeeded in taking the UK out of the EU.

Streatham MP Mr Umunna and universities minister Jo Johnson today visited Queen Mary University of London and appealed to students to register to vote in the referendum on Britain’s EU membership and ensure they cast their vote.

Ministers are concerned that while polls show most people in the country want Britain to stay in the EU too many of them will not vote - allowing the Brexiteers to win.

Mr Umunna told The Standard: “My message to students and young people is simple – in this referendum, if you snooze, you’ll lose.

“Young people in London and the rest of the country have more to lose than anyone else on June 23 but they are less likely than anyone else to vote.

“There’s a real risk that if you don’t vote, you may end up with a hangover that lasts a lifetime and one that was inflicted on you by Nigel Farage and his friends.”

Orpington Conservative MP Mr Johnson added: “Young people are going to be some of the hardest hit if we vote to leave the EU - lost job opportunities, lost networks, lost life chances.

“Register to vote: it’s your future, you should decide it.”

The In campaign also published figures which showed that more than 1,700 students from London, including 120 students from Queen Mary University, benefited from the EU’s Erasmus scheme in 2013/14 to allow them to spend a period studying in other European countries.

Meanwhile, former Foreign Secretary David Miliband stepped into the row over Britain’s borders arguing that it was “spurious” to claim that the country would regain control over them by quitting the EU.

He told BBC radio: “It’s perfectly understandable and reasonable for people to make a decision about immigration and about refugees but they should do so on the basis of the facts, not the fantasy.

“The facts are that Britain controls its borders in terms of who comes in, whether they be migrants, economic migrants, or refugees who are alleged to be being let in by the EU.”

But Brexit campaigners stress that free movement means that the UK is not able to stop hundreds of thousands of other EU citizens coming here, many in search of work.

Senior Tory MP Nigel Evans also accused the Government of “spiv Robert Mugabe antics” after its decision to spend £9.3 million of taxpayers’ money on a nationwide mailshot making the case for staying in the EU.

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