Vote Leave: 'Government manipulating televised EU debate to its own advantage'

An upcoming head-to-head EU referendum debate to be broadcast on ITV has been manipulated by the Government "to give itself every possibly advantage", according to the Leave campaign.

Vote Leave said the rules of the televised debate between David Cameron and Ukip leader Nigel Farage - scheduled for June 7 - were "being set" by the Government.

The latest claim comes after Vote Leave, accused of "excluding" Mr Farage from their campaign, threatened legal action against ITV on Wednesday.

"ITV has accepted the Prime Minister's demands without even discussing it with the official campaign and has allowed the Prime Minister to dictate his own opponent", a statement read.

"Since the campaign began, ITV has also given twice as much airtime to the IN campaign than to the Leave campaign.

"We think that the Prime Minister ought to debate the representative of the official Leave campaign.

"In a serious democracy, the Government should not be allowed by a free media to pick its own opponents in the official debates on the most important political decision in decades".