Gordon Brown in dramatic EU referendum intervention

Gordon Brown is to make a dramatic intervention in the EU referendum as he tells Labour voters they have the "most to gain" if they reject a Brexit in next week’s In-Out vote.   

Brown will use a speech today to state that the European Union can be used to tackle corporate tax avoidance and create jobs. 

The former Prime Minister’s speech in Leicester today will be seen as a pitch to Labour voters ahead of the 23 June referendum, amid concerns that many have been alienated by David Cameron and the Remain campaign's focus on Tory rivalries.  

However, as the campaign enters its final 10 days, Brown’s intervention has echoes of his speech on the eve-of the 2014 independence referendum that was widely credited with helping to deliver a No vote.      

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Labour politicians are expected to take on a more high profile role in the closing stages of the campaign, with the Prime Minister taking a back seat to his predecessor.

Brown, who was Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010, will make the case for the UK to be a "leader of the European" and not leave, in a "positive" message.

The UK would be "in pole position" to champion change when it takes the rotating presidency of the EU in 2017, he will argue in the speech.

"From now until 10pm on 23 June we will not rest and I will not stop explaining why nine million Labour voters have most to gain from remaining in the EU," he will say.

"Today I am setting out a positive agenda for Labour voters - reasons why Labour voters should vote Remain and the patriotic case for remaining in Europe.

"But we shouldn't just be a member of the European Union. We must be the leader of the European Union."

Brown will go onto argue that reforms to digital, energy and service sectors could create an estimated 500,000 new jobs in Britain over a decade - and that a pooled energy strategy could cut domestic bills.