Mark Carney’s warning that Britain faces a recession if it leaves the EU is “nonsense” and a “totally unjustifiable” intervention, a Government minister has said.

Andrea Leadsom, an energy minister who previously worked in the Treasury, hit out at the Governor of the Bank of England for warning about the dangers to the British economy of a Brexit.

In a major attack, she accused Mr Carney of “provoking financial instability” by warning that the risks of leaving "could possibly include a technical recession".