On Monday, the House of Lords voted through an amendment to the EU withdrawal bill to give parliament a “genuinely meaningful” vote at the end of Brexit negotiations. During the debate, Lord Puttnam made an intervention on behalf of young people and their feelings towards Brexit:
“My Lords, I would like to speak briefly making a single point. The word “overwhelming” has tortured this House over the past many months — the notion that somehow or other the 52:48 majority was ‘overwhelming’. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, overwhelming equates to massive; it was not massive—it was narrow or marginal. What is overwhelming is the support for ‘remain’ from young people generally in this country, amounting to around 70% of all young people and 80% in the case of young people with a degree.
The point that I would like to make to the Minister is that those 80% of young people are the ones we will rely upon to drive this country post-Brexit to any form of economic success. We are going to be wholly dependent on them; so do not diminish their belief in their European future by pretending that the result of the referendum represents the views or wishes of the overwhelming majority of young people in this country.”
The full debate and Lord Puttnam's intervention can be found on the Hansard website: https://goo.gl/7uc7Rz