David Cameron today issued a plea to Independent readers to make sure they have registered to vote as three new polls suggested that momentum is moving towards Britain’s exit from the European Union.
Remain campaigners are concerned that with support moving in the direction of a leave vote, turnout and voter registration will be crucial to the final result.
Financial markets have also responded to the polls with fears of a currency meltdown at their highest levels since the financial crisis.
“This is a vote about the future of the country,” Mr Cameron told The Independent.
“This vote will determine the sort of economy young people grow up in, the sort of opportunities that our children and grandchildren have.
“This is bigger than any one politician which is why I urge everyone to go out and register so they can have their say.”
Figures from the Electoral Commission show that since May over 1.35 million people have applied to register to vote online of which 763,183 were under the age of 34 – those most likely to support a remain vote.
But a series of polls in recent days have suggested momentum is building behind Brexit campaigners.
A YouGov poll yesterday showed 45 per cent of Britons would vote to leave the EU compared with 41 per cent who would vote to stay in.
A separate survey by TNS showed 43 per cent backed Brexit, while 41 per cent supported continued EU membership.
An ICM poll of 2,000 people added to the pressure, with 48 per cent in favour of the UK leaving, up one point on last week, and 43 per cent in favour of remaining.
The polls have spooked the financial markets. The pound fell by as much as 1.5 cents against the dollar while the cost of insuring against wild swings in the currency over the next month jumped to a level not seen since the height of the financial crisis in 2009.
“Were Brexit to occur we would see a real risk of a sterling crisis against the backdrop of twin fiscal and current account deficits,” Mark Dowding, co-head of investment grade debt at BlueBay Asset Management told The Financial Times.
In other developments in the referendum debate:
* The Remain campaign has published an analysis claiming UK exporters would face £34.4bn ‘Export Tax’ from cost of non-tariff barriers alone if Britain leaves the EU’s Single Market. This, they say, represents an average cost of £79,500 for each of the 430,000 British businesses that export to the EU.
* Forecasters at the Economist Intelligence Unit claimed Brexit would mean NHS spending would be £135 per head lower – while nearly 10,000 doctors and 19,000 nurses in the NHS who come from other EU countries could be affected.
* The Remain campaign reported Vote Leave to the Electoral Commission for an advert on Google that they claim misleads people into thinking they have registered to vote – when in fact they have only passed their details onto the Vote Leave campaign.
Later today David Cameron and Nigel Farage will both take part in a live ITV ‘debate’ on the EU referendum, although they will not appear on the stage at the same time and will be questioned separately by a studio audience.
Mr Cameron is expected to stick to the Remain campaign’s theme that a vote to leave could put Britain’s economy in peril.
Yesterday the Prime Minister said Brexit would “put a bomb” under the UK's prospects.
But Boris Johnson said it was a “delusion” to think Britain could boost its prosperity by “bartering away our freedom and democracy”.
He warned of a “triple whammy” of economic woe if the UK remains in the EU, claiming that Brussels was waiting until the referendum is out of the way to seek an increase in budget contributions as well as extra cash to fill a £20bn black hole in unpaid bills.
Mr Cameron joined senior figures from Labour, the Liberal Democrats and Greens to launch a dossier detailing 23 alternative trade models which they claimed had been espoused at various times by Leave campaigners – each of which they said would have “a profound and damaging effect on our economy”.
They said Leave spokesmen had made unfunded spending commitments that would create a £153.6bn black hole in public finances, along with floating plans to scrap workers' rights and environmental protections.
Mr Cameron warned that Brexit would plunge the UK into recession, with businesses going bust, unemployment rising and sterling falling, followed by a “decade of uncertainty” as Britain attempts to negotiate new trade arrangements with the rest of the world.
“Add those things together – the shock impact, the uncertainty impact, the trade impact – and you put a bomb under our economy,” he said. “And the worst thing is we'd have lit the fuse ourselves.”
Ms Harman accused the Leave camp of “speaking in code” about wanting to scrap EU regulations, which she said would mean cuts to parental leave and protections for part-time and temporary staff.
Mr Farron accused Leave of running “a campaign based on lies” and joked that they had floated enough different countries as post-Brexit models to fill a Euro 2016 football sticker book.
Ukip leader Nigel Farage dismissed Mr Cameron's “bomb” comment as “hysterical”, adding: “The Prime Minister is clearly convinced he is losing the argument.”
And Mr Johnson said pro-EU campaigners were rattled and losing the debate.
