by Larry Neild
LONDON, June 3 (Xinhua) -- With just 20 days to go before the British referendum over EU membership, immigration, jobs and the economy continued to dominate the campaign trails across Britain.
The leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) said Friday that Britain could end up with a population of around 80 million by 2040.
Nigel Farage, who sits as a British member of the European Parliament in Brussels, heads the UKIP which was set up in 1993 with a mission to bring the country out of Europe.
Farage said on Friday that the continuing flood of people into Britain has opened up a great divide.
He has predicted if current levels of immigration continue, the population will reach 80 million by 2040, equivalent to a house needing to be built every four minutes.
Meanwhile, the Britain stronger in Europe campaign said Friday that leaders of service sector companies employing hundreds of thousands of people warned jobs in their booming sector would be put at risk by a 'leave' vote.
More than 25 million people in Britain work in a sector that includes retail, hospitality, transport, professional and financial services.
British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne warned 400,000 jobs in the sector would be lost within two years if Britons vote to leave the EU.
Describing the service sector as a great British success story, Osborne challenged the Leave campaign to admit that jobs would be lost if Britain leaves the EU and its single market, saying they should "come clean with the British public".
The Remain side also said an independent economic analysis published Friday demonstrated the importance of the EU single market, saying it was responsible for up to 87 billion U.S. dollars a year in services exports from Britain.
One of the world's biggest banks, JP Morgan Chase, warned it could be forced to cut its headcount in Britain and switch jobs to the European mainland if there is a leave vote.
The bank employs 16,000 people in Britain.The bank's chief executive Jamie Dimon warned jobs could be switched to Paris and Frankfurt, saying a leave vote would "be a terrible deal for Britain".
As voting nears, a deadline loomed for people eligible to vote to register, with a last-minute drive to encourage young voters to ensure they sign up. People must be registered on an official electoral roll in order to take part in the referendum.
Figures released by 10 Downing Street on Friday showed that on Thursday alone around 21,000 people aged under 25 registered to vote. Around 43 million people will have the right to vote in this month's referendum.
