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EU referendum latest poll of polls: Remain and Leave both on 45% as Brexit vote looms

Michael Gove has rejected suggestions that the Conservatives ran for election in 2015 on the basis of a "lie" amid claims David Cameron was told by civil servants four years ago that a key immigration pledge was undeliverable.

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Mr Cameron has come under fire from his former policy guru and Leave supporter Steve Hilton, who has claimed the Prime Minister was told it was "impossible" for the Government to fulfil its ambition to reduce net migration to under 100,000 while the UK remained in the EU.

Meanwhile, the latest poll and rolling seven-day average of all published opinion polls from the Press Association had both camps on 45%.

But when asked on BBC Radio 4's Today programme if he and his party had campaigned on a "lie", Mr Gove said: "No I did not. I believed and hoped that we would be able to secure a deal with Europe which would enable us to amend free movement."

Mr Gove, a leading Leave campaigner, said he had "consistently argued" that the UK needed to change its relationship with the European Union.

He said: "I have specifically argued that we need to change our relationship with the European Union by fundamentally reforming not just our relationship but the European Union itself.

"During the renegotiation I hoped and prayed that the Prime Minister would be able to bring about that change.

"He wasn't and I don't blame him - I do blame the other countries of Europe."

Meanwhile, former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg was asked on the same programme whether he believed Mr Hilton's assertion to be correct and whether he had been in such a meeting.

"No I was not," Mr Clegg said.

"I have absolutely no recollection of that at all."

Mr Gove has also insisted the UK would be able to get a "better deal" with the EU after a Brexit vote even though the country would no longer be paying into the organisation.

He said: "We will be in a position, I think, to secure a better deal than the one that we have now."

Mr Gove stressed it would be in the "economic self-interest" of the rest of Europe to strike a "good deal" with the UK.

His intervention comes as both sides of the referendum campaign are ramping up their efforts with polling day now less than 48 hours away.

Boris Johnson will go up against Ruth Davidson in front of an audience of 6,000 voters at the SSE Arena, Wembley.

Mr Johnson, Labour's Gisela Stuart and Conservative minister Andrea Leadsom will take on the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, London Mayor Sadiq Khan and TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady in the BBC's Great Debate.

Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn and Gordon Brown are on the road to try and win over wavering Labour supporters.

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