EU referendum: Vote In campaign video appealing to young voters branded 'patronising'
Young peolpe are portrayed as ‘workin, earnin, shoppin, ravin, chattin'
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Your support makes all the difference.The EU Remain campaign has received a mixed response to a new video urging young people to vote, which portrays the younger generation as ‘workin, earnin, shoppin, ravin, chattin’ individuals .
Britain Stronger In Europe’s #votin campaign, launched on Tuesday, quickly starting trending on social media, but was branded patronising by some.
Conservative MP and Brexit campaigner James Cleverly claimed the video, with its bass-heavy soundtrack and apparent disregard for the letter ‘g’, was “clearly” the brainchild of “someone in their 50s”.
However, fellow Tory Sam Gyimah, an education minister, said it was “the job of us politicians to make politics engaging and accessible – less official, less formal, more casual.”
Polls show that younger voters are far more likely to vote to Remain in the EU, yet less likely to turn out on June 23. The In campaign is determined to encourage as many as possible to register to vote in time for the June 7th deadline.
Only 43 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds voted in the 2015 General Election, compared to two thirds of the wider population.
Writing for the Huffington Post, Mr Gyimah said: “As the #VOTIN launch video points out whether it is 'learnin', 'travellin', 'sharin' – the 'easyjet generation' takes being in the EU for granted on so many levels, and reaps the biggest rewards from our membership.
“They will be the worst affected if Britain votes to leave, finding it harder to get a job, suffering the squeeze of lower wages and higher prices, and forfeiting their automatic right to work, study and travel abroad.”
However, Tory colleague Mr Cleverly, the MP for Braintree, joined critics of the campaign on Twitter, saying: “Clearly someone in their 50s came up with #votin ‘youth’ campaign. It’s so bad I thought it was a parody by the #Brexit team”
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