Britain leaving the European Union would risk creating a "lost generation" of young people, Nicky Morgan will warn in a speech on Tuesday.
The education secretary is to make an appeal to parents not to risk their childrens’ future by voting for Brexit at the forthcoming June 23 referendum.
Nicky Morgan will use a London event to warn that young people would be victims of the economic uncertainty wrought by Brexit.
"It's clear that, if Britain leaves Europe, it will be young people who suffer the most, left in limbo while we struggle to find and then negotiate an alternative model,” the minister will say.
“In doing so we risk that lost generation becoming a reality. And everyone who casts their vote must understand that.”
According to Morgan, if “parents and grandparents vote to leave” the EU, they'll be gambling with "their children and grandchildren's future.”
"At a time when people are rightly concerned about intergenerational fairness the most unfair decision that the older generation could make would be to take Britain out of Europe and damage the ability of young people to get on in life," she will say.
“It's clear that, if Britain leaves Europe, it will be young people who suffer the most, left in limbo while we struggle to find and then negotiate an alternative model”
- Nicky Morgan
The minister is to note how membership of the EU offers young people study opportunities, as well as the ability to work and travel abroad.
"This is the generation of Instagram, easyJet and eBay… They don't want to see a Britain cut off from the world, where not only their opportunities, but our influence as a country, ends at our shores,” Morgan will say.
The minister will argue that young people want to see the UK “working internationally to tackle the big problems and issues that they care about because they want to make their world a better place.”
"I want young people to make sure their voices are heard in this debate - whichever side of the debate they might be on – otherwise they risk having the decision made by other people, their future decided for them, not by them," she will add.
“It is depressing that the Education Secretary is so willing to do down the chances of young people as part of Number 10's desperate bid to win the referendum”
- Robert Oxley
However, a campaigner for the Leave campaign said young people were carrying the cost of British membership of the EU.
"It is depressing that the Education Secretary is so willing to do down the chances of young people as part of Number 10's desperate bid to win the referendum,” said spokesman Robert Oxley.
"The EU has not been good for young people, driving up costs and forcing down wages while leaving a generation unemployed on the continent,” he added. "Given the Government is still borrowing a fortune, it is future generations who are footing the bill for the £350 million we send to Brussels each week. The best thing we could do for current and future generations is to spend our money on our priorities."