Roundup: British EU referendum campaign period officially begins

Britain's European Union (EU) referendum campaign formally kicked off Friday as leading political figures and campaigners reached out to different parts of the country to woo voters.

Friday marked the beginning of the official 10-week campaign for the EU referendum, which is scheduled to be held on June 23.

Two opposing campaign groups, "Vote Leave" and "Britain Stronger in Europe", have been designated as official campaigns for the referendum.

On Friday, both groups unveiled their statistics-packed video advertisements to highlight their arguments, with leading politicians making high-profile speeches to set the tone for their campaigns.

British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne warned that mortgage rates in Britain will rise if the country leaves the EU.

The chancellor hinted that the cost of home loans would increase if Britain votes to leave the EU in June.

Alistair Darling, a former Chancellor of the Exchequer, sent out a string of warnings against British exit from the EU at an event hosted by "Britain Stronger in Europe" in London.

"They are offering a fantasy future where we keep all the benefits of being in Europe without being part of the single market. It's Project Fantasy," Darling told his audience.

"As a country whose long-term economic recovery relies on the health of our exports and our regulatory environment being attractive to global investors, it would be a colossal surrender of power to walk away from our largest trading partner, increase uncertainty, erect trade barriers and diminish our influence," he elaborated.

However, Eurosceptic politicians wasted no time in exploiting the full limelight on the first day of the campaign period.

London mayor Boris Johnson, a vocal opponent of the EU, said that voting to quit the EU is a "vote for freedom" and that the day after the referendum will be "Independence Day" for Britain.

"Would we now join a club that cost us 20 billion gross and 10 bn net? Which takes away the right to control our borders and our democracy?" he said at a political rally in Manchester.

"The EU, they say -- it's crap but we have no alternative ... well we do have an alternative, and it is a glorious alternative," he added.

Speaking at the launch of Vote Leave's campaign in Nottingham, British Justice Secretary Michael Gove slammed the vision of the Remain campaign as being "deeply and bleakly pessimistic and negative."

"What they are really saying is Britain, this country that we all love, is too small, too weak and its people are too stupid to be able to succeed on our own without the European Commission there to hold our hand and look after us," he said.

"To vote leave is a vote of confidence in ourselves and a vote of confidence in the enterprise of the next generation," he told the crowd.

The British government's official position is that Britain should stay in a reformed EU. Endit