Summary

  • The UK faces an extra £2.4bn bill from Brussels if it remains part of the EU, Boris Johnson says

  • David Cameron warns an EU exit could push up mortgage rates

  • Leave campaigners say the UK could be pushed into future eurozone bailouts if it stays in the EU

  • Former PM Sir John Major attacks the "squalid" and "deceitful" campaign to get the UK out of the EU

Live Reporting

Aiden James and Jackie Storer

  1. He's re-hired: Lord Sugar back as government's enterprise tsar

    Lord Sugar

    In other news... the man who's catchphrase is "You're fired" is back. Apprentice star Lord Sugar has been hired again as the government's enterprise tsar.

    The job will involve Lord Sugar encouraging more young people to consider starting their own business or undertaking an apprenticeship.

    He will also urge firms to take on more apprentices themselves.

    Lord Sugar, who founded Amstrad and educational IT supplier Viglen after leaving school at 16, will be undertaking a series of roadshow events across England, speaking to local school leavers and businesses.

    He said:

    I’m delighted to be taking on this challenge. I built successful businesses with the support of hundreds of talented young people who learned their skills on the job – exactly the kinds of skills you learn in an apprenticeship. But not enough of our young people know about apprenticeships and what they offer, and too few feel empowered to set up their own business."

    Skills Minister Nick Boles said:

    We want every young person in Britain to get on and build a great life for themselves, whether it’s by starting an apprenticeship or setting up their own business. Lord Sugar has huge credibility among young people and I am delighted that he has agreed to help the government bang the drum for apprenticeships and enterprise."

  2. Gordon Brown urges EU Remain campaigners to set out a positive reform agenda

    Gordon BrownPA

    A European Union fund should be set up to help parts of the UK which are facing the strain of increased immigration, former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said as he called for a more positive referendum debate. 

    Mr Brown made the case for Britain leading a reform process in Brussels which would appeal to millions of left-leaning voters who were being ignored as the campaign centred on Conservative divisions.

    The former MP, who is addressing the European Parliament, said warnings of "negative consequences" would not be sufficient to win on 23 June - drawing a parallel with the Scottish independence referendum.

    In a few days' time the focus of the referendum will shift from the current battle for the hearts and minds of Britain's 11 million Conservatives to an even larger group - Britain's 14 million voters, nine million of them Labour, who are not right-of-centre - and to the danger that many of them will not vote Remain but simply remain at home. While more instinctively pro-European, this group's concerns are not the same as the Conservatives. They do not think the status quo is to their benefit; they want to know how their lives can improve and they need to hear a positive message of how Europe can deliver for them in the future. To win in the Scottish referendum we had to do much more than elaborate the negative consequences from the break-up of Britain. We had to set out a positive reform agenda, which eventually led to a new constitutional settlement."

  3. Conservative MP: Public 'sick of post Brexit doomsday scenarios'

    Andrea Leadsom

    Conservative Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom describes recent IFS and Treasury reports on Brexit as producing "absolute doomsday" scenarios.

    The Vote Leave campaigner says:

    I think people are getting a bit sick and tired of this overwhelming stuff about how the economy is going to end in tears if we leave the EU. The truth is of course that economic forecasts are only going to spit out on the assumptions that you put in so this IFS work isn’t new it’s a re-hash of previous work, including that dreadful treasury report that assumes the UK won’t do any trade, productivity will take a hit, ludicrous assumptions and depending on the assumptions that you put in, you can get absolute doomsday out the other end.”

  4. IFS: 'We've built our reputation on our independence'

    Today Programme
    BBC Radio 4

    More from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), on Vote Leave's claims that it is "a paid-up propaganda arm of the European Commission"', director Paul Johnson told BBC Radio 4's Today programme:

    It’s true we get about 10% of our income from something called the European Research Council, which is an independent arms-length body which funds world-class academic research in places as diverse as Norway and Israel, which are well outside the European Union - and that funds some of the more academic end of the research we do, and certainly doesn’t impact on this kind of work. But more importantly, for the last 30 years, the IFS has really built its reputation on the independence and integrity of our work, and actually there is no sum of money from anywhere in the world which would influence what we said, because if it did then the point of the IFS…that we are listened to after budgets and so on, would simply be lost."

  5. Treasury: IFS EU report 'suports our own analysis'

    The Treasury says Institute for Fiscal Studies' claims that Britain's public finances would take an immediate hit if the nation voted Brexit supported its own findings.

    A spokesman for the Treasury described the IFS report as "unequivocal".

    It's a significant addition to the consensus of credible opinion that Britain's economic security is at risk from a vote to leave the EU - and supports the conclusions of the Treasury's own analysis which shows a vote to leave would lead to a significant hit to public sector borrowing, of up to £40 billion by 2019/20. Far from having more to spend on schools, hospitals and other vital public services, we'd have far less. This is further proof that we are stronger, safer and better off inside a reformed EU."

  6. Norman Smith analysis: IFS report 'really matters' to EU debate

    Victoria Derbyshire

    Norman Smith

    The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) analysis of a post Brexit UK is "a bruising blow" for the Leave campaign, the BBC's Assistant Political Editor Norman Smith says.

    Speaking on BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme, he adds:

    They matter in a way no other economic forecaster matters - their reports are viewed as the holy grail of economic forecasting. They are the people we turn to when we're looking for someone to analyse the government's budgets and they're frequently very, very critical of the government. So when they say there'd be a hit from Brexit - it really matters."

    Smith says the Leave campaign's attack that the IFS team "are propagandists for the European Commission" because they receive grants from Europe is "a bit of an own goal". 

    Certainly at Westminster the IFS are viewed as the ultimate economic forecaster. What they say really matters."

  7. Listen: Is this what the EU debate sounds like to you?

    Matt Chorley, editor of the Times Red Box, gives his own take on the arguments heard from both sides of the EU debate.

  8. G7 - an island of wisdom?

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  9. Lord Sugar becomes No 10's Enterprise Tsar

    BBC economics editor tweets...

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  10. Would Brexit add two years to austerity?

    Reality Check

    Quote: Brexit could add two years to austerity."

    The claim: The economic impact of leaving the European Union would lead to a loss of £20bn to £40bn from the public finances, extending austerity by a further two years, according to the IFS.

    Reality Check verdict: The relationship between Brexit and the public finances may not be exactly as described. But if - like them - you accept predictions that leaving the EU would cut economic growth, it is hard to imagine that would not hit the public finances. Such a scenario would require spending to be cut further, taxes to be increased or the period of austerity to be extended.

    Read the full Reality Check here.

  11. Alistair Darling: 'All predictions show UK will take a substantial hit post Brexit'

    Today Programme
    BBC Radio 4

    All post Brexit predictions "point in the same direction" - that the British economy will take "a substantial hit", former Labour chancellor Alistair Darling claims.

    Pointing to recent Treasury and Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates, he tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "What they both say is there would be a substantial hit to our economy."

    When we leave, we're out - that's it... What I'm seeing is there would be certainly an immediate hit, we don't know how long it'll last... Everybody is saying there will be a hit."

    Lord Darling is also pressed to say whether he thinks Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn should be more involved in arguing for Britain to remain in the EU.

    I think he is and I hope he will become more involved. The leader of any main political party and the leader of the opposition has a big role to play and I hope he does more... We're taking this massive decision and there's a huge amount of risk if we leave."

    Asked if he is concerned about the EU-US trade deal, known as TTIP, the peer stresses that it is his "firm belief" that provided the right safeguards are in place "trade helps all of us".

  12. John Redwood: Brexit 'will give the British economy an important boost'

    Today Programme
    BBC Radio 4

    John Redwood says leaving the EU and stopping contributions will give the British economy "an important boost".

    I think it's £10bn - they say it's £8bn - it's more than half a per cent of our GDP boost. I'm saying that we'd get that first round boost by getting rid of some of the austerity and spending some of the money we desperately need on health service and other services in Britain that we currently have to give away and doesn't come back to the UK. That will lead on to other effects - you'll collect more tax revenue and there'll be a general boost to incomes when you spend that money."

    Mr Redwood accuses the government and the Remain campaign of talking the pound down, adding: "Since they've tried to talk the pound down, it's actually gone up." 

    The IFS' Paul Johnson says investment and consumption will fall in the short run if Britain leaves the EU, adding: "We know that increased uncertainty is bad for economic performance investment."

    But Mr Redwood hits back that big investors like car companies are not going to change their investment plans "when we leave".

  13. John Redwood: 'IFS part of cosy establishment that wants us to leave EU'

    Today Programme
    BBC Radio 4

    Former Conservative Cabinet minister John Redwood, a pro-Leave campaigner, accuses the IFS of being "part of this cosy establishment which desperately wants to keep us in the EU".

    He says the institute buys into this general view "that there would be unspecified negatives on trade if we leave the EU".

    "We've just heard that they get money from European bodies and British bodies as well," says Mr Redwood commenting on the IFS admission that it gets money from the European Research Council.

    I think we're going to be better off out of the European Union."

  14. IFS: 'No sum of money from EU would influence us'

    Today Programme
    BBC Radio 4

    The director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has defended its report that suggests austerity measures could be extended by two years in the UK should it vote to leave the EU.

    Paul Johnson concedes that the institute gets "about 10% of our income" from the European Research Council, which funds academic research, but claims "it certainly doesn't impact on this kind of work".

    Countering Vote Leave claims that the IFS is "a paid-up propaganda arm of the European Commission", he said that "no sum of money would influence what we said because if it did the point of IFS would be lost".

  15. Vote to leave EU would 'condemn Britain to irrelevance', say historians

    The Guardian

    According to The Guardian, more than 300 prominent historians, including Simon Schama and Niall Ferguson, are warning voters that if they choose to leave the European Union on 23 June they will condemn Britain to irrelevance.

    In a letter to the Guardian, the academics and writers argue that the referendum offers a chance to underscore the “irreplaceable role” Britain has played, and should continue to play, in Europe’s history.

    “As historians of Britain and of Europe, we believe that Britain has had in the past, and will have in the future, an irreplaceable role to play in Europe,” the letter says.

    Read more

  16. Tory dismisses IFS pro-Remain claims as 'meaningless forecasts'

    A veteran Conservative MP tweets...

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  17. £9m EU leaflet 'made no difference'

    BuzzFeed
    BuzzFeed

    Remember the row over the government's pro-EU leaflets, delivered to every household in the UK?

    Buzzfeed's Emily Ashton reports on a poll by the Electoral Reform Society suggesting fewer people felt "well informed" after the mailout than they had before.

    Read the full story

  18. The BBC's EU referendum newsletter

    A quick plug for the BBC's EU referendum newsletter. It lands in your inbox every Friday until polling day, with the pick of the week's analysis and news. Sign up here.

  19. Dominic Raab criticises the EU over anti-corruption

    The Guardian

    The Guardian reports on pro-Brexit minister Dominic Raab's claim that the EU has failed to implement anti-corruption measures.

    Mr Raab cites comments from Transparency International, which said the EU should be "mildly embarrassed" as it had been at the forefront of the anti-corruption debate.

  20. Kamal Ahmed on the IFS Brexit report

    Today Programme
    BBC Radio 4

    The BBC's economics editor says the fact that the figures in the IFS report are disputed does not mean they are not legitimate economic models. There are also, however, perfectly legitimate arguments to say while there could be a "short term shock", the long-term response of the UK economy would be "pretty robust", he adds.