51Âþ»­

Channel 4 News led a debate on the EU referendum live from 51Âþ»­ last night – with our students having their say on the future of the union.

 EU debate IFE MAIN

Law student Ife Jaiyesimi with Channel 4 News presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy

The debate, held in the Queen’s Building, was unique in that it consisted of an audience of people from a Black and Minority Ethnic background.

Channel 4 News made the decision to select a BME audience after a survey showed people from minority backgrounds could prove to be the crucial voters in the referendum.

The survey of 20,000 voters showed that white Britons were split down the middle to "leave" or "remain" while the BME respondents were 2 to 1 in favour of staying within the EU. If this statistic was applied to the referendum vote on June 23  it would give “remain” a clear victory.

Channel 4 News selected 51Âþ»­ as the venue because it is at the heart of the UK’s most diverse city and almost 50 per cent of the student body is from a BME background.

Channel 4 News anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy said: "It is quite edgy to delve into these views and have a completely BME audience on mainstream TV discussing a major topic like this. Channel 4 News is all about hearing these voices and where better to do this than in Leicester."

EU Debate MAIN

The floor manager counts down to the start of Channel 4 News

51Âþ»­’s own social media accounts were busy throughout the hour-long programme, which was aired between 7pm and 8pm last night, and can be watched again

A dmuleicester Facebook Live feed reached an audience of more than 500,000 while the @dmuleicester Twitter account reached more than a quarter of a million people as hundreds of thousands of people joined the debate.

Ife Jaiyesimi, a third year Law student at 51Âþ»­, sat on the front row during the debate and Channel  4 News anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy asked for her views on the referendum. Ife  believes the UK should remain in the EU.

Ife said: “It was a really good experience appearing on a live television programme. I was really nervous as I did not realise the program would be live.  I think the majority of the Leave campaign’s arguments are to do with problems in the UK and nothing to do with the EU.

“The issue for young people at the moment is there is a lot of jargon being used and we cannot understand what is happening one way or the other. We need clear debates and messages made in lay man’s terms so we are able to make a decision on a vote that will have a huge impact on our futures.”

EU debate MAIN 2

Krishnan Guru-Murthy gathers audience views before going live

Ali-Haider Hussain, a second year Journalism and English student, was a part of the audience and said: “To be honest I went into this debate with the clear idea that I preferred to be out of the EU but having listened to all of the arguments I may re-evaluate my position.”

Ilaina Skinner, a fellow Journalism and English student, said: “As a journalism student, it was fascinating to have an insight into how the programme is made. I mean, how often do you get to see a live broadcast happening here?”