Michael Gove has likened financial experts advising Britain to stay in the European Union to Nazis denouncing Albert Einstein’s scientific findings in the 1930s.

Mr Gove, who chairs the Leave campaign, made the comparison on LBC radio, after being asked why British citizens should ignore the warning of economists that Brexit will hurt the economy.

He said: “I think the key thing here is to interrogate the assumptions that are made and to ask if these arguments are good.

“We have to be careful about historical comparisons, but Albert Einstein during the 1930s was denounced by the German authorities for being wrong and his theories were denounced, and one of the reasons of course he was denounced was because he was Jewish.

“They got 100 German scientists in the pay of the government to say that he was wrong”.

The Justice Secretary added that “with growth rates so low in Europe, with so many unemployed and with the nature of the single currency so damaging, freeing ourselves from that project can only strengthen our economy”.

Mr Gove said he would “reflect and decide” whether to keep his role in government on Friday, should Britain vote to stay in the EU.