“We will ensure that young people do not lose their voice” – read the full text of Miliband’s speech

And I want to thank Ivan Lewis and Lisa Nandy for being here and leading this process of giving young people a chance to shape their future.

The reason I’m here is that there is nothing more pressing at this election than the future of young people.

The future of the country depends on young people and the outcome of this election will determine what kind of future young people have.

This Government has betrayed young people.

I am determined that the next generation does better than the last.

Today we are launching our conversation with you about what your priorities are for the next government.

“Shape your future” will give young people up and down the country the opportunity to talk to us about Labour’s Young Britain manifesto.

And once we’ve published that manifesto and if we are in government I want you to hold us to account.

This election comes down to a choice about how we run the country and who we run it for.

Do we want a country which works for all young people, or just the few at the top in our society?

Your job, your education, your home, your future depend on who wins this election.

A Labour government would tax the bank bonuses and put our young people back to work.

Guaranteeing a job for young people who have been out of work for a year or more.

We will improve the quality of work available for young people by raising the minimum wage and supporting a Living Wage.

And it’s not just about work but about education.

I believe a country can only succeed when we create opportunity for all of our young people.

That’s why the educational priority for the next Labour government will be apprenticeships and a revolution in vocational education.

A Labour government will make sure that as many young people leaving school are able to do apprenticeships as currently go to university.

But we also want to do more for students heading to university, who leave at the end burdened down with debt.

By the time of our manifesto, having listened to you, we will have more to say on higher education.

And unlike Nick Clegg, we will keep the promises we make.

This election will also decide how easy it will be for your generation to find a home of your own to rent or to buy.

For the first time, we will give those renting the security that they need.

And stop letting agents charging tenants, saving young people as much as £500 when they rent.

And a Labour government will also stop housing developers hoarding land, and build 200,000 homes a year.

And we will rescue and renew our NHS.

David Cameron seems to be the last person in Britain who doesn’t recognize the crisis in our National Health Service.

We have a plan for how we will transform our NHS.

We will raise £2.5 billion from a mansion tax on the most expensive homes, clamp down on tax avoidance and get money from the tobacco companies to hire more doctors, nurses, midwives and care workers.

And it will be about giving mental health a bigger priority in our NHS.

I know how many young people feel mental health services have let them down and they want change and we will be saying more about this in the coming weeks.

And the decisions you make at this election will affect you now and in the future.

Climate change is one of the biggest issues facing our world, and the most profound issue facing young people.

Here too, we won’t make promises before an election and break them afterwards.

I cared about climate change when I was climate change Secretary and passed the world-leading Climate Change Act, I care about it as Leader of the Labour Party and I will care about it and lead on it as Prime Minister.

I know there are lots of others areas people will want to make suggestions in—from internships to transport.

In all of them making your voice heard is crucial.

And we will make good on that commitment by trusting in the voice of young people.

By giving the vote to all 16 and 17 year olds by May 2016.

It will be the biggest extension of the right to vote in almost a century – to over 1.5 million people.

The final thing I want to say is this:

Even before we get to this election, we now know there is a clear and present danger that young people will not even have the right to use their voice.

In the last year almost one million people have fallen off the Electoral Register, hundreds of thousands of them young people.

This is a direct consequence of the Government’s decision to ignore warnings that rushing through new individual voter registration would damage democracy.

It has.

Having broken their promises on tuition fees to young people, having failed to build the economy that will work for them, having short-changed their future, this is David Cameron and Nick Clegg’s final insult to young people.

They are sitting by and watching hundreds of thousands of young people in our country lose their sacred democratic rights.

We will not sit by.

We will not allow this scandal to happen and no right-thinking person should either.

Labour will now lead a national mission to stop young people being denied a voice at in this election.

And today I urge universities, local councils, and young people themselves to play their part.

Let’s work together to register young people to vote and make sure they don’t lose their voice.

We will shape a manifesto that gives the best future for young people.

“Shape your future” is not simply a slogan, it is the way the next Labour government will work with young people so we can together create a fairer, more equal Britain.

We will ensure that young people do not lose their voice.

I urge young people to make sure their voice is heard.

And let’s build a country where all young people can succeed.