Gordon Brown is to make a major intervention in the EU debate.

The pro-EU lobby hopes that the former Prime Minister, dubbed the man who ‘saved the Union’, can prevent the UK backing Brexit.

They believe his message could win over voters south of the Border as well as in Scotland.

Polls suggest the vote could be on a knife edge.

Mr Brown was credited as an architect of "The Vow" and made a key speech on shared British values in the days before the independence vote.

At the time he was hailed by some as the saviour of the Better Together campaign after an opinion poll suggested Scots were on course for a Yes vote.

Alan Johnson, the former Home Secretary leading the EU In camp, said that Mr Brown's experience in the Treasury during the creation of the Euro could be crucial in the EU referendum.

“Gordon’s the man who kept us out of the single currency more than anyone else, so we want to deploy him somewhere in the UK rather than just in Scotland," he said in an interview with The House magazine.

“We think that powerful intervention from a Chancellor who kept us out of the single currency would be really good.”

He said that Mr Brown would make a "major intervention” in the campaign.

The current Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn would also be deployed “at some stage”, he added.

"We don’t want to fire all of our ammunition too early in this.”

Mr Johnson has been accused of promoting ‘Project Fear’ arguments.

He denied he was scaremongering saying: “It’s no good the chief executive of BMW on June 24, after his workers have just voted to Leave, saying ‘incidentally, you do realise this has huge ramifications for your job’.

"They’ll say ‘why didn’t you tell us before?’. They’re entitled to know these things.”

He said that financial arguments were “very valid” in both the Scottish independence and EU campaigns.

"The economic arguments for leaving the EU don’t exist,” he said as he predicted a “tough” battle between now and June 23.

But he said he had faith voters were looking for "more than soundbites and a bit of patriotic posturing”.

He also backed David Cameron’s claims that leaving the EU could lead to Calais-style migrant camps in the south of England.

“Anyone who is being told vote Leave on June 23 and you won’t have to worry about immigration any more then they’re selling them a massive untruth," he said.

Leave campaigners have said that the UK cannot cut net migration from other European countries while the UK remains in the EU.

Meanwhile, Mr Cameron said that the UK would not take any extra migrants as a result of a deal between the EU and Turkey as arrived at a summit in Brussels .

Mr Cameron said that the measures agreed would not apply to the UK because it is not part of the EU's Schengen border-free area.

But Mr Cameron warned fellow EU leaders that the new arrangements may push some migrants to move their efforts further west to the sea routes from Libya, in a repeat of scenes last summer when thousands attempted the perilous journey by boat to Italy.

Elsewhere, American president Barack Obama has been warned against intervening in the EU debate by pro-Brexit MPs, who warned it could backfire.

The Bank of England has also warned uncertainty over the vote could hit UK growth.