Orpington MP Jo Johnson is urging students to vote remain on Thursday, warning that a Brexit would leave them under a “cloud of uncertainty”.

Mr Johnson also predicted that Britain could be confronted with a “funding black hole”.

In an open letter to students published in the Guardian, the universities and science minister cited the Erasmus exchange programme and research funding among the benefits British academia enjoys as part of the EU.

He wrote: “The UK does disproportionately well in winning EU research funding.

“Overall, we put in about 12% of the EU budget but win back more than 15% of research funds.

“Universities UK, the umbrella body for university vice-chancellors, reckons this income generates about 19,000 UK jobs.

“The truth is that we’re potentially confronted with a funding black hole roughly equivalent to the size of one of our world-class research councils.”

Four days before the nation goes out to vote on whether they want to leave or remain, Mr Johnson has spoken out about the threat to university and research funding.

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He writes that although Britain would be eligible to join research programmes without being in the EU, ditching membership would mean “losing a seat at the table when the big decisions about funding and priorities are made”.

He wrote: “We should not pretend that replacing these rich additional European funding streams would be easy.

“The leave campaign claims we could make up the shortfall outside the EU, but its failure to acknowledge any impact of Brexit on the public finances means their promises lack credibility.”