text: Sixteen and seventeen year olds should not be allowed to vote in a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union because they have been brainwashed with pro-EU colouring-in books, Ukip has said. The party said schoolchildren were being exposed to ‘propaganda’ from Brussels in a bid to ‘catch them young’. It came as Ukip was accused of performing yet another U-turn on its immigration policy . Ukip campaign chief Patrick O'Flynn accused Brussels of feeding 'propaganda' to young people who could not be trusted to vote in a referendum . David Cameron has promised to claw back powers from Brussels before holding an in-out referendum by the end of 2017. Ukip has called for the vote to be held earlier, and today warned under-18s should not be allowed a say. Ukip deputy chairman Suzanne Evans said: ‘It's everything there from colouring-in books on the Common Agricultural Policy for primary school children right up to research projects at university level. ‘The amount of money that the EU is putting into this propaganda and throughout the entire education system is enormous. Overall the EU has an advertising budget that is larger than Coca-Cola.’ Asked if schoolchildren were being brainwashed, the party’s campaign chief Patrick O'Flynn said: ‘I think it's not a million miles away. ‘It's certainly designed to catch people young and feed them propaganda and a very partial view which you know just speaks up to the EU being an unalloyed good thing that we couldn't possibly do without.’ Pushed further, he added: ‘It is an emotive term but I wouldn't demur from the description of brainwashing. ‘We’ve had many reports from our members of schoolchildren of secondary school age being exposed to overwhelmingly pro-EU views when the matter of the European Union is discussed and not really having the Eurosceptic case put.’ Ukip deputy chairman Suzanne Evans said the amount of money that the EU is 'putting into this propaganda and throughout the entire education system is enormous' Mr O’Flynn said the party was ‘strongly against’ lowering the voting age as under-18s are ‘too young/ to vote. He accused the Lib Dems of trying to ‘gerrymander’ a future in-out referendum after speculation they would demand 16 and 17-year-olds and EU migrants are given a vote as part of a possible post-election Coalition deal. He argued the fairest way of holding a referendum would be to stick to the rules of a general election and said any changes could skew the vote. ‘Let's be frank about it, opinion research shows that 16 and 17-year-olds are much more likely to be in support of Britain's membership of the European Union than is the population in general,’ he said. ‘And the electoral franchise does not allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote and it's no wonder the Liberal Democrats wish to make this change but it's a gerrymandering change which is clearly intended to skew the result.’ Critics of EU waste have previously condemned a colouring and activity book produced by Brussels which promoted the work of bureaucrats and MEPS . At an EU summit in 2013 David Cameron held aloft the book promoting the wastefulness of MEPs . Ukip was today accused of performing yet another U-turn on its immigration policy after it ruled out setting a net migration target hours after Nigel Farage said he would like to see the figure reduced to 30,000. The party leader on Tuesday said cutting annual net migration from 300,000 to 30,000 by 2018 would be a ‘return to normality’. But this morning party deputy chairman Suzanne Evans, who is writing the party’s manifesto, said: ‘There are no migration targets.’ ‘I can tell you that there won’t be any mention of 50,000 or 30,000 in the manifesto and that’s official party policy,’ she added. The party previously promised to cap numbers at 50,000 before Mr Farage earlier this month disowned the cap and said he would not set ‘arbitrary’ targets. Mr O'Flynn called on David Cameron to ‘come clean’ on any discussions he has had with the Lib Dems about the referendum and then guarantee he will not meet any of the party's demands. He said: ‘We would like him to guarantee that none of these demands will be met, that Mr Clegg will not have a hand in the question, the timing, and that there is no question whatsoever of the franchise being changed from the general election franchise. ‘Because in the case of 16 and 17-year-olds they are far more likely to have been exposed recently to very strident pro-EU views and not to have heard the Eurosceptic case at all. ‘And in the case of EU migrants, there is obviously a vested interest potentially in how they will vote. ‘We see this as an attempt by the Liberal Democrats to gerrymander the outcome but we are also worried that David Cameron has a habit of letting the Liberal Democrats take the rap for certain un-Conservative things he might be planning to do.’ In 2013 the European Union unveiled a children's play book that told how it takes four Eurocrats to send a letter and depicted them travelling around town in taxpayer-funded limousines. The 10-page book 'Mr and Mrs MEP and their helpers' was an apparently serious attempt to shed light on the lives of elected officials in Strasbourg, and 15,000 were printed. On page 1, the couple's work day begins at 8am as they arrive at the airport, briefcases in hand, to find their driver 'waiting for them in a limousine'. Safely chauffeured to the office, Mr MEP wants to send a letter to a colleague but does not have an envelope. The book explains - in four European languages with reading, games and colouring in exercises - how this problem is resolved with the help of three other people.
target: Ukip said schoolchildren brainwashed with pro-EU colouring-in books .
  Party said teens exposed to EU 'propaganda'  in a bid to 'catch them young'
  It said it was 'strongly against' lowering the voting age as under-18s .