Image source, Getty Images

The New Scientist's Hal Hodson, external asks: Can social media messaging really make up or change minds on an issue as unemotive as whether the UK should stay in the European Union?

Campaigners think it’s worth a punt. Paul Stephenson, communications director of the campaign group Vote Leave, says Facebook is the prime social media platform.

Hodson suggests that on the face of it - it’s a good bet. In the 2015 UK general election, the Conservatives spent £1.3 million on Facebook adverts, targeting people who lived in the 40 constituencies they needed for a majority. Before the vote, everything pointed to a hung parliament, with the Labour Party likely to be the largest party. On the night, the Tories came out on top. 

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Two senior Labour figures clash over whether Welsh voters would be better off inside or outside the EU.

Eleanor Garnier
Political Correspondent

Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Owen Smith claims Jeremy Corbyn does recognise the need "to make a strong Labour case" in the EU referendum debate.

Mr Smith says the Conservatives would sell workers' rights "down the river" if they were in charge of organising an exit from the EU, which is why "Labour's got to make an incredibly strong case" and why he would be "urging Jeremy Corbyn to redouble his efforts", adding: "I know I don't need to because he understands, we all understand, how important this is."

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In other news, a shortlist of bidders for Tata Steel's remaining UK business is reportedly set to revealed by the end of the week.

Three suitors are thought to be in the running - management buyout team Excalibur, commodities trader Liberty House run by tycoon Sanjeev Gupta, and Leeds-based private equity group Endless.

It is understood that professional advisory firm KPMG, which is handling the sales process, has been reviewing up to seven bids that were submitted by the deadline on 23 May. 

KPMG had been expected to announce a shortlist last week. 

The Daily Telegraph

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The Daily Telegraph's, external Michael Deacon, reporting on Boris Johnson's tour of the North, says the former London mayor came barrelling out of Preston station and powered along the pavement towards the Vote Leave battle bus. But he had company – and not just from TV news crews.

Trundling alongside him, desperate to get into every shot, was a pro-EU van. Emblazoned on its sides were unflattering photos of Boris and Nigel Farage, accompanied, in jeering block capitals, by the message: “Trust this pair with your family's future? Vote Remain on June 23rd.”

Stoutly ignoring it, Deacon says, Boris clambered aboard the Vote Leave bus. He’d come, along with the employment minister Priti Patel, to begin two days campaigning for Brexit , externalin northwest England. Off the bus chugged. The enemy van pootled along in pursuit.

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Norman Smith
Assistant political editor

The warning by the new leader of the GMB  - Tim Roache - reflects widespread concern within the Remain campaign that many Labour voters remain confused and apathetic.

Jeremy Corbyn will today seek to address this in a speech stressing the employment rights guaranteed by the EU - including paid leave, protection for part-time workers and maternity pay.

All is at risk, he will say, if Britain votes for Brexit and a Tory government moves to repeal such benefits.

However, Mr Roache today urges Mr Corbyn to focus more on the issue of immigration - a subject the Labour leader has rarely addressed and is expected to mention only in passing this morning.

In a BBC interview Mr Roache  warns the subject cannot be ignored, claiming Mr Corbyn  is seen as a half-hearted Remainer.

Meanwhile the former cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith has accused Downing Street of showing contempt for voters concerns over the impact of immigration on schools, hospitals and housing.

The Leave campaign has also released polling suggesting that a majority of voters believe  immigration has damaged public services.

The Guardian

The Guardian, external is reporting that attempts to convince the public they will be worse off if Britain leaves the EU are falling on deaf ears, according to an Ipsos Mori poll that suggests two-thirds of the electorate don’t foresee any negative impact on their personal finances from Brexit.

Even when told that they could be personally worse off by up to £500 per year if Britain left the EU, the majority of leave-leaning voters (60%) still said they would vote to leave.

The study of 4,000 adults reveals voters think there could be a negative economic impact from quitting the EU, but it is unlikely to hurt them personally.

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The Guardian

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According to The Guardian, external, Boris Johnson has said he is “not forming an alternative government” to replace David Cameron, external - despite putting forward detailed plans for a new immigration system.

The former London mayor joined Michael Gove, external, the justice secretary, and Priti Patel, the employment minister, to pledge new “Australian-style” immigration controls by 2020 which, he said, he hoped would be carried out after a vote to leave the EU on 23 June.

The trio went on a campaign tour of Lancashire, during which Johnson was asked if his proposals amounted to an alternative to Cameron’s administration. Johnson said that was not the plan.

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Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Labour's shadow welfare secretary Owen Smith has been defending his party's contribution to the campaign to stay in the European Union. He agrees with GMB leader Tim Roache that the party needs to do more - and says Jeremy Corbyn agrees too.

He denies that Labour is happy to sit back and let the Tories argue among themselves in the hope it brings the government down, saying a vote to Leave would not automatically trigger a general election.

He says the most likely outcome would be a new Conservative leader leading a post-Brexit negotiation - adding:

Image source, John Boardman

Some non-EU news - MPs say ministers are failing to protect Britain's soils on farmland and in cities.

The Commons Environmental Audit Committee warns that tracts of polluted soil are a potential health hazard in many towns because the government has stopped grants to decontaminate them.

And agricultural carbon emissions are said to be growing because careless farming allows soil to blow away.

The government said it was protecting soils, but would review the new report.

Read the full story

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Labour MP and Remain campaigner Mary Creagh says she has had emails from Labour-voting constituents asking what her party's position is on the EU referendum.

She says Labour's pro-EU message is "not getting through on the ground".

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One-time political foes George Osborne and Alistair Darling join forces today to attack the Leave campaign, challenging their rivals to show they are not just "making it up" as they go along. In a letter , externalpublished in the Daily Telegraph, the two Remain campaigners pose a series of questions on trade, tariffs and how the UK would negotiate a new relationship with the EU.

Thursday's newspapers turn their attention to Vote Leave's proposal yesterday for an Australian-style points-based immigration system.

The Daily Telegraph says the plans saw the Leave campaign "finally talking in specifics, external, giving the public a clearer idea of what life post-Brexit might be like" and they "could reshape politics for years to come".

For the Financial Times, the ideas may sound attractive but do not constitute a coherent policy, external.

"The crucial question," it says, "is whether it is possible or desirable to significantly cut work-based immigration - from the EU or elsewhere - and what trade-offs this would entail for the economy."

In the view of the Times, the proposal is superficially attractive but it is doubtful whether the Australian methods would work in the UK.

"The free flow of labour is vital to the success of the British economy," it adds. "The drawbridge cannot be raised. Nor should it be."

But for the Sun, criticism by Remain supporters is ill judged. "Leave want an Aussie-style system that gives us control over all migrants. If we still got too many, from inside or outside the EU, we would adjust the points threshold. Freed from Brussels' grip, we would have the power to do it."

The Guardian says any restrictions on EU migrants would likely lead to restrictions on UK access to European markets and the "risk of dire economic consequences would therefore be high". It also calls on Labour to show it is "pulling its weight" in the Remain campaign.

Read a full digest of this morning's papers

Today Programme
BBC Radio 4

Ahead of Jeremy Corbyn's speech on Europe later, BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith says there is a recognition within Labour that the party needs to "change gear dramatically" on the EU debate or risk losing the referendum.

Looming large is the question of immigration, he says, and there is a "profound sense of self doubt" about how to address it.

Liam Fox's argument on house prices (see below) has been attacked by Lib Dem leader Tim Farron, who says: "Leaving would mean fewer jobs, higher prices and lower pay, making deposits harder or impossible to build up. And it means higher mortgage payments making first time loans less affordable."

House builders also criticised Mr Fox's argument - saying the construction of new homes would stall if Britain left the EU.

James Hopkins, executive chairman of Hopkins Homes, said: "My greatest fear is that leaving the EU will exacerbate the housing crisis, bringing economic uncertainty and with it stagnation in the housing market.

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Also speaking today is former Tory Defence Secretary Liam Fox, who is focusing on property prices with a claim staying in the EU would make it harder for young people to get on the housing ladder.

He will say: 

We'll hear from Jeremy Corbyn later, in a speech where the Labour leader will say workers' rights are best protected by being in the EU.

But first, there's a warning from new GMB leader Tim Roache who has told the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg the Labour leader is "a half-hearted Remain" supporter and urged the party to get behind him and campaign vigorously to stay in the EU.

"I think he probably could do a bit more, let's hope he will," he said.

Produce like Welsh lamb and Halen Mon salt could lose their protected status if Britain leaves the EU, Plaid Cymru says.

Powers that allow UK security services to collect large volumes of personal data are not "inherently incompatible" with privacy laws, say MPs and peers.

Mark Mardell visits Berlin and finds the Germans agonising about the fallout if the UK votes to leave the EU.