Minister attacks colleagues for patronising voters in EU debate

Britain's justice minister will accuse his colleagues in government on Tuesday of treating voters like children, saying they are trying to scare them into voting to stay in the European Union "by conjuring up new bogeymen every night".

Michael Gove, a friend of pro-EU Prime Minister David Cameron, will use a speech to criticise "In" campaigners including several top ministers, deepening a rift in the ruling Conservatives before a June 23 referendum on membership of the bloc.

He will also attack a report delivered on Monday by the country's finance minister, who said that an exit from the EU, or Brexit, could cost Britons thousands of pounds a year and sap funding for public services.

"The Remain campaign want us to believe that Britain is beaten and broken ... It treats people like mere children, capable of being frightened into obedience by conjuring up new bogeymen every night," Gove will say, according to excerpts of a speech he is due to make at a building overlooking Westminster.

He will criticise members of the "In" campaign for courting "real danger", saying Brussels wanted to take more power and money away from Britain.

In his most direct attack to date on the government, he will describe Osborne's report as "an official admission from the 'In' campaign that if we vote to stay in the EU then immigration will continue to increase by hundreds of thousands year on year".

The government, which wants to reduce immigration to the tens of thousands, says the country can only control its borders if it cooperates with the EU and has warned that thousands of refugees may flock to Britain from France if the country left.

Dominic Grieve, Conservative chair of parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee, told BBC radio that Britain could control its borders.

"I think you'll find that if you ask the Home Secretary she will tell you that she has excluded a very large number of EU nationals," he said.