Stand up for Europe campaign launched to target young voters
Eddie today (Monday 23rd May) kicked off a new campaign to visit 31 cities in the next 31 days in a bid to get young people to register for the referendum and vote to stay in Europe. His tour kicks off at Aston University in Birmingham today where he will give a speech to an audience of 200 students and take part in a Q&A.
Young people will be key to the result - a recent poll by the National Union of Students found 76 per cent of students want to Remain with just 14 per cent back Leave. But Ipsos MORI found 18-24-year-olds were almost half as likely to vote as the over-65s, with just 44 per cent voting compared to 76 per cent.
Among the cities he will visit over the next four weeks are Edinburgh, Belfast, Cardiff, Manchester and Cambridge, appearing at universities, schools and other community events.
Ahead of his first event, Eddie said: “We know the overwhelming majority of young people want to stay in Europe because of the opportunities it presents to work, to study and to travel. I share their positive view of Europe – I am a British European who has performed in German, French and Spanish.
“But if they are not registered, they can’t vote and those opportunities will be taken away without them getting to have their say. It only takes two minutes to register on a smartphone and it must be done by June 7th.
“I got chances from Europe that the generation before me never got – just imagine what benefits young people will get in the future. This could be the biggest decision of their lives and I want to help make sure they get their chance to have their say.”
For details of these events check the shows page - campaign events are marked as Political Speech. More dates will be added.