Jeremy Corbyn turns fire on Conservatives in EU speech

Boris Johnson has slammed the EU as trying to build a European superstate similar to that envisaged by Hitler, although he conceded Brussels was using "different methods".

The incendiary comparison by the Leave camp's most high-profile campaigner comes in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

In his interview Mr Johnson said that over the past 2,000 years there have been repeated attempts to impose a single government on Europe.

The former mayor of London said:

The Conservatives are to blame for Britain's economic difficulties, not the European Union, Jeremy Corbyn has said.

Mr Corbyn launched a highly partisan attack on the Government during a speech in London, saying responsibility for many of the country's problems "lies in 10 Downing Street, not in Brussels".

"It is not the European Union that is the problem here, it is the Conservative Government," the Labour leader said.

"Their agenda is to end the working time directive, their agenda is to take away that protection, their agenda is to take away the four weeks holiday we won all across Europe. Their whole concept is of undercut, undercut, undercut. Increase profit at one end, increase misery at the other end."

He added: "Do we allow xenophobes to take over or do we instead occupy that political and intellectual territory of the idea that you can solve things together? You'd better build those alliances working with people rather than isolating yourselves from them."

Britain can "prosper, thrive and flourish as never before" if it leaves the EU, Boris Johnson has said.

Addressing a crowd in Bristol, the former London mayor said: "We are better, braver, stronger and greater than those on the remain side are currently saying that we are.

"I'm telling you that if we vote on June 23 and take back control of our country, our economy and our democracy then we can prosper and thrive and flourish as never before."

He added: "People were grossly wrong about the euro, they said London would collapse and all the banking would go to Frankfurt. It is just the establishment trying to scare the pants off people because of vested interests."

During a lively speech, Mr Johnson described the Vote Leave campaign as having a David and Goliath struggle, adding: "We know what happened to Goliath."

Leaving the European Union will cost Britain billions of pounds in infrastructure investment, David Cameron has warned.

The Prime Minister said a vote for Brexit would mean an end to Britain's membership of the European Investment Bank (EIB) which has poured more than £16 billion into UK projects in the past three years.

Among projects to have benefited from EIB support, he said, were the purchase of new super express trains for the East Coast Main Line, the extension of the M8 motorway between Edinburgh and Glasgow, and the expansion of Oxford University's research and teaching facilities.

He said that withdrawal from the EIB would have a "devastating impact" on future infrastructure projects.

"Vital projects across every region of the UK have been financed by the EIB. These make a huge difference locally, nationally, and sometimes globally," he said in a statement.