With just one week until the historic referendum finally takes place, the latest surveys matched a string of polls over the past week to have shown big leads for Leave.

Despite the Remain campaign scrambling to halt an apparent slide in support, the new snapshot of public opinion by Ipsos-Mori indicated the momentum continued to be with Brexit supporters as Leave led by six points.

Survation released another survey showed Leave up seven points on 45 per cent, leading Remain on 42 per cent, down two. Excluding 'don't knows' Brexit leads 52-48 with a week to go.

British banker explains why he is voting LEAVE for BREXIT...

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Hats off to Andrew Neil!

"...it was pretty hard to find anyone who was prepared to say they wanted to stay in the EU."

The 20-year-old migrant, who had been taken to the Austrian swimming pool to be taught how to integrate into his new community, was found guilty of serious sexual assault and rape of a minor and was sentenced to six years in jail.

The man, who had fled to Austria through the Balkan refugee route in September last year, hung his head in shame before he was sentenced for the horrific crime which left his victim suffering post-traumatic stress.

The Chancellor faced the unprecedented backlash from more than 60 of his own colleagues as he warned against opting for 'austerity' with dramatic hikes on income tax and fuel duty.

He insisted the poorest would 'pay the price' if we decide to take a 'leap in the dark' - and also risked further inflaming public anger over immigration by dismissing the prospect of curbs on free movement from the bloc.

But in the most vicious Blue-on-Blue clashes of the campaign so far, Conservative Brexit supporters immediately responded that they would not allow him to impose the 'emergency' Budget. They said his position would be 'untenable' if he tried to impose it.

And even his Remain allies Labour disowned the drastic measures, saying they would be the 'wrong thing to do'.

Support for remaining in the European Union (EU) appears to have dipped in Scotland as the referendum draws nearer.

An Ipsos Mori poll for STV suggests backing for the remain camp, while still well ahead, has fallen by 13% over the last two months.

The poll of 1,000 adults - carried out between June 6 and 12 - shows a majority (53%) still support remaining in the EU, with 32% backing Brexit.

When the same question was asked in April, 66% were in favour of the UK's continued membership while 29% wanted to leave.

Two-thirds of The Herald's website readers are backing the UK to leave Europe, according to our exclusive survey.

The online poll (below), which has been active for the last two weeks in the run-up to the referendum, shows more than 64 per cent of readers intent to vote to quit the EU.

A total of 1,049 people have voted so far, with 676 backing leave, 370 backing remain and 48 undecided.

The vast majority of Business Insider readers based in the United Kingdom believe that Britain should vote to leave the European Union on June 23.

Last week, we launched a poll asking readers: "Should the UK leave the European Union?"

Seven days later, the result speaks for itself. Out of 7,018 UK-based respondents, 4,691 said that Britain ought to leave the 28-nation bloc. This is approximately 67%.

British Finance Minister George Osborne has warned that Brexit would trigger tax hikes and spending cuts across the UK.

Osborne, who is campaigning for Britain to remain in the EU, made the remarks Wednesday as stock markets plunged on the prospect of Brexit.

An astonishing 65 Conservative MPs have rejected George Osborne’s proposed emergency budget as ‘absurd’ and have criticised his suggestion that he would threaten to ‘renege on so many manifesto pledges’.

They have warned: ‘If he were to proceed with these proposals, the Chancellor’s position would become untenable.’

Commenting, Vote Leave Chief Executive Matthew Elliott said: "George Osborne’s reckless teenage temper tantrum has proved a step too far.

"Threatening to vandalise the economy has led to his MPs effectively declaring no confidence in him. The Prime Minister must reflect on the failure of his appalling scare tactics and stop undermining the British economy for his own political interests."

Jeremy Corbyn has urged the “whole Labour movement” to back the drive for the UK to stay in the EU, in a bid to halt the momentum of the Leave campaign.

Leaving the European Union would not only hurt Britain but will also undermine “the collective security of the West,” says Britain’s defense minister.

As well as receiving a salary of over £75,000, MEPs get a 306 euros (£243) daily subsistence allowance to pay for food and drink while away from home.

Vote Leave chief executive Matthew Elliott last night said: ‘This is literally the gravy train that the £350 million a week we send to Brussels is paying for.

‘If we weren’t paying for the fine dining and extravagant cuisine of MEPs we would have more money to spend on our priories like the NHS.

‘Too many in Brussels seem more concerned with their lunch menu than they are with dealing with the challenges the EU is incapable of solving.

‘If we want to take back control of our borders, economy and democracy we have to Vote Leave on 23 June.’

Britain last night caved in on Turkey, agreeing to let it take another step towards full EU membership.

During talks in Brussels, UK diplomats initially resisted allowing the country to open a new phase in its negotiations with the EU. But within only a few hours, Britain backed down.

Leave campaigners said it made a mockery of claims by David Cameron that Turkey is not on course to join until ‘the year 3000’.

Tory MPs have accused the Cabinet Secretary of showing ‘contempt for parliament’ by blocking the release of sensitive information about the impact of the EU on public services.

In a strongly-worded letter, four Conservative MPs have accused Sir Jeremy Heywood of ordering civil servants to refuse to answer parliamentary questions that might jeopardise David Cameron’s bid to keep Britain in the EU.

She should stick to acting.

At the moment the UK is £1.9bn out of pocket, with the promise of further rebates and repayments.

All this reveals the complexity of EU affairs, and the fact that even a Eurosceptic government with no wish to pay any extra ends up having to pay something all the time it is a member of the EU.

The European Commission on Wednesday proposed a new system for enforcing the relocation of migrants around the EU, giving countries that refuse to accept refugees an expensive “pay-to-not-play” option.

The measure, which would set a price of €250,000 per migrant for countries that want to avoid EU-imposed quotas for the resettlement of asylum-seekers, is part of a raft of new proposals aimed at rebooting the EU’s beleaguered strategy for dealing with the migration crisis.

The pay increases, which apply retroactively from last July, come as the European Union is struggling to rev up its economy following the financial crisis, with unemployment standing at 10.7 per cent in the euro currency area.

Jean-Claude Juncker is poised to make a major intervention on Britain's EU referendum after a string of polls handed Brexit a large lead with just nine days to go.

The President of the European Commission had promised David Cameron he would stay out of the Brexit battle for fear of making it look like Brussels was bullying British voters.

But the pair secretly agreed the gloves could come off if Brexit was ahead going into the final week, it was reported today.

The European Union should be able to absorb 2 million refugees, the leader of the bloc's executive said Monday, despite tensions among member states over the arrival of hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers last year.

All 55,000 Brussels civil servants are to benefit from the 2.4 per cent salary hike, backdated to July.

This is despite a year marked by a shambolic reaction to the migrant crisis and the stuttering economic performance of the eurozone.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will get an extra £8,300 next year.

His basic salary will rise to £230,490.68 plus a residence allowance of £34,573.56 to cover the cost of accommodation in Brussels and annual expenses of £12,490.56.

Mr Juncker’s basic pay is 60 per cent higher than the £142,500 annual salary earned by David Cameron.

The commission president is among 10,000 Brussels officials who earn more than the Prime Minister.

British armed forces are going to face major cuts if Britons vote to leave the European Union (EU) in a referendum later this month, UK Chancellor of Exchequer George Osborne has warned.

Two polls putting Leave well clear of Remain – five points according to yesterday’s Guardian/ICM poll, seven points according to a Times/YouGov poll – have seen bookies slash their odds on Brexit, implying that it’s more likely than ever before – as shown by the chart above. A few weeks ago, the betting markets thought there was an 18 per cent chance of Leave: now it’s 41 per cent.>>>
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It may not be long before Leave takes the lead: William Hill’s spokesman Graham Sharpe says ‘the momentum is such that it seems inevitable Brexit will be favourite by the weekend if this trend continues’.>>>

1. Banning hair-dryers
2. A bigger budget
3. Open borders
4. More bail-outs
5. Deeper integration
6. Human rights
7. Arts import licences
8. Wrecking our ports
9. Quotas for online TV
10. A European Army

According to the YouGov poll for The Times, "Leave" held 46 percent support compared with 39 percent support for "Remain." Undecided voters were 11 percent, while 4 percent won't vote.

Last Monday The Times/YouGov had reported a 1 percent lead for the "Remain" campaign.

In another, though not unexpected, boost for "Leave," media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's Sun newspaper called on its readers to vote to quit the 28-member EU.

WE are about to make the biggest ­political decision of our lives. The Sun urges everyone to vote LEAVE.

We must set ourselves free from dictatorial Brussels.

Throughout our 43-year membership of the European Union it has proved increasingly greedy, wasteful, bullying and breathtakingly incompetent in a crisis.

Next Thursday, at the ballot box, we can correct this huge and ­historic mistake.

It is our last chance. Because, be in no doubt, our future looks far bleaker if we stay in.

It would appear Clinton has been coronated and not elected.

Too quick to judgment? The Democratic Party establishment and the media now call Hillary Clinton the presumptive nominee to face off Donald Trump in November. Though this is before the Democrats hold their convention and while Clinton is still short of pledged delegates.

Most economic modelling has found that a Brexit vote in the June 23 referendum would make little difference to Britain's economy, the study by the influential Cass Business School concluded.

It said the Government had ignored waves of research in favour of publishing 'highly prejudiced' reports warning the UK would be poorer by £4,300 per household by 2030 and be hit by an immediate recession.

And in a damning verdict on George Osborne's approach to the referendum campaign, author Dr David Blake, a professor of Pension Economics at Cass Business School at City University London, accused the Treasury of becoming a 'propoganda machine' for the EU.

The surveys - both by ICM with one done by phone and the other online - showed an increase in the lead for leave from four points to six.

Both polls by the firm, carried out between June 10 and today, showed Leave on 53 per cent to Remain on 47 per cent. The new data follows a poll last week with a 10-point Brexit lead.

Western political civilisation itself is under threat if Britain votes to leave the EU, European Council President Donald Tusk said in an unprecedented warning. RT looks at the latest in the referendum race.

Tusk, a politician and historian, issued the most serious caution yet over the future implications of Brexit in an interview with the German newspaper Bild.

Two recent opinion polls show that “Leave” and “Remain” campaigns will have a very close contest in the upcoming referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union, as polls results stand at about 50-50.

Is there really a great collapse coming, and a more permanent shift to Americans and westerners becoming more like serfs?

Why is George Soros selling stocks, buying gold and making “a series of big, bearish investments”? If things stay relatively stable like they are right now, these moves will likely cost George Soros a tremendous amount of money. But if a major financial crisis is imminent, he stands to make obscene returns. So does George Soros know something that the rest of us do not?

[...] Mr. Soros also argues that there remains a good chance the European Union will collapse under the weight of the migration crisis, continuing challenges in Greece and a potential exit by the United Kingdom from the EU.

Read more at SHTFplan.com

European Council President Donald Tusk warns it could take Britain up to seven years to negotiate its way out of the EU in the event of a Brexit. If the UK does vote to leave, how long will it actually take?
Divorces are messy, prolonged affairs, and if Brexit occurs it will be no exception.

British Prime Minister David Cameron says he will not stand down even if he loses the campaign for the UK to remain in the European Union.

Cameron said in an interview with BBC on Sunday that he will stay as premier until the end of this Parliament in 2020 regardless of the EU referendum results.

"The [border] closure is what would make [Europe] broken, which could degenerate us in inbreeding,"

European Council president Donald Tusk said we could cause the collapse of the global order as we know it.

The former Cabinet minister said the prospect of the House of Commons - around three quarters of which supports staying in the EU - defying the will of the people was 'appalling'.

The senior Tory also renewed his attack on David Cameron, insisting the Prime Minister cannot be trusted over denials that Turkey will join the bloc.

With ten days to go until the referendum, how much are David Cameron and our partners keeping back from voters about the EU’s plans for the future?

The question is brought into sharp focus by yesterday’s leaks of British diplomats’ cables, discussing policies not intended to be publicly aired before the vote is safely out of the way.

In one, our representatives in Amsterdam say the Dutch have agreed to co-operate in delaying controversial Brussels announcements until after June 23.

In another, the Foreign Office’s people in Ankara advise ministers to consider offering visa-free access to as many as 1.5million Turks with ‘special passports’, to complement the EU’s plans to open up the border-free Schengen area to Turkey’s population of 80 million.

Stripped of distractions, it comes down to an elemental choice: whether to restore the full self-government of this nation, or to continue living under a higher supranational regime, ruled by a European Council that we do not elect in any meaningful sense, and that the British people can never remove, even when it persists in error.

For some of us - and we do not take our cue from the Leave campaign - it has nothing to do with payments into the EU budget. Whatever the sum, it is economically trivial, worth unfettered access to a giant market.

We are deciding whether to be guided by a Commission with quasi-executive powers that operates more like the priesthood of the 13th Century papacy than a modern civil service; and whether to submit to a European Court (ECJ) that claims sweeping supremacy, with no right of appeal.

One of David Cameron's biggest donors has withdrawn his financial support for the Conservatives and is considering quitting the party over the way the Prime Minister has handled the referendum, the Telegraph can reveal.

Edi Truell, a pensions expert who has donated over £270,000 since 2010, said he will only hand over money if Boris Johnson or Michael Gove take over from Mr Cameron after a Brexit vote.

It came as Priti Patel, a Government minister, accused Mr Cameron of "undermining" the Conservative manifesto by warning that the triple lock on pensions could be at risk if the UK votes to leave.

A secret plan to open Britain's borders to 1.5million Turks was revealed today after British diplomats said the move would act as a 'symbolic gesture to Turkey'.

Senior diplomats advised ministers that the EU's proposals to grant visa-free travel to Turkey's 75million population in the borderless Schengen zone could lead to the UK giving the same status to 1.5million 'special passport holders'.

EU officials have also quietly delayed the publication of of documents on the visa-free deal with Turkey until after June 23 to avoid deterring British voters from staying in the EU, according to reports.

The British public has misguided perceptions of the European Union including immigration, which in turn leads to “ignorance” about the upcoming Brexit referendum later this month, a new survey suggests.

Interesting news this week as Belgium-based Optima Bank has been shut down by both the National Bank of Belgium (which also acts as the Belgian regulating body) as well as the ECB. According to the national supervisor, the bank would have been unable to meet its commitments to its clients and was forced to cease all banking activities after some potentially fraudulent transaction were unveiled. It’s surprising to see the main media have tried to keep this silent as even the website of the National Bank of Belgium didn’t bother to issue the press release in English (whereas all other press releases on the home page can be read in English). There’s no statement from the ECB either, nor has this news been translated on the English version of website of the state-owned national television station.

Choosing to speak in San Diego, home base of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, on a platform draped with 19 American flags and preceded by half an hour of military marching music, Hillary Clinton was certain of finding a friendly audience for her celebration of American “strength”, “values” and “exceptionalism”. Cheered on by a military audience, Hillary was already assuming the role to which she most ardently aspires: that of Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces.

As usual, she goes for the military solution, ridiculing the notion of diplomacy.

But in a sign of increasing division within Cameron's ruling Conservative Party, a former minister and prominent 'Leave' campaigner accused him of making a "a baseless threat."

"What we now have is a vindictive and desperate attempt to bully and frighten the British people - particularly pensioners - all in a frantic bid to rescue a failing campaign," Iain Duncan Smith said, in an emailed statement from the 'Leave' campaign.