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- From the section EU Referendum
Ministers have begun campaigning to win over voters on the issue of the UK's EU membership - after David Cameron called a referendum for 23 June.
The prime minister warned that exiting the EU would not stop migrants coming to the UK, as six ministers who attend cabinet joined the leave campaign.Senior Conservative MP and London mayor Boris Johnson is expected to announce he will campaign for an EU exit.
He is expected to reveal his decision later on Sunday.
Mr Johnson is understood to have told friends he is genuinely conflicted about which way to campaign in the referendum.
But BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith said Mr Johnson had now made up his mind - and would announce which team he would side with this evening.
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Mr Johnson has also discussed the issue with Justice Secretary Michael Gove, one of those to declare support for the leave campaign.
Mr Cameron has said he will campaign to remain in a "reformed" EU.
He warned leaving the EU would be a "leap in the dark" as he urged voters to back his reform deal.
Renegotiations of the UK's relationship with Europe were finalised on Friday night after intense wrangling at a two-day summit in Brussels.
The agreement, which will take effect immediately if the UK votes to remain in the EU, includes changes to allow curbs on migrant welfare payments, safeguards for Britain's financial services and making it easier to block unwanted EU regulations.
Image copyright Getty Images He said the UK would still have to contribute financially to the EU, even if it left.
He also challenged Eurosceptics to explain what Britain's relationship with Europe would be like in the event of an EU exit.
'Mired in the past'
Meanwhile, splits in the cabinet over the issue have been laid bare by interviews and articles in Sunday's newspapers.Writing in the Observer, Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond said "leaving the EU would be a threat to our economic security and our national security".
In an article for the Mail on Sunday, Business Secretary Sajid Javid said he would be voting for the UK to remain in the EU with a "heavy heart" and no "enthusiasm". He said leaving the EU could add to "economic turbulence".
However, Mr Gove - a close friend and key ally of Mr Cameron - wrote in the Sunday Telegraph that the EU was "mired in the past".
He said choosing to join the leave campaign had been "the most difficult decision of my political life".
Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers told the BBC leaving the EU was a safer option than staying in it.
She said there had been a sense of history at the cabinet meeting to discuss the vote - the first to be called on a Saturday since the Falklands War.
The Labour Party, the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Lib Dems have said they are in favour of staying in Europe. The DUP said it will recommend voting to leave the EU.
Two campaign groups - Vote Leave and Leave.EU - are competing to be officially designated as the Out campaign for the referendum.
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The UK held a referendum in 1975 shortly after it had joined the common market that later became the EU.
The vote was in favour of staying in, but there have been growing calls from the public and politicians for another vote because, they argue, the EU has changed over the past 40 years.
The organisation has extended its control and now sets rules in a wide range of areas - including on the environment, transport and consumer rights.
Mr Cameron initially resisted calls for another vote, but in 2013 he changed his mind. At the last election he promised to renegotiate the UK's relationship with Europe ahead of a public vote to decide whether the UK should stay in or leave.
The key points of Mr Cameron's deal, agreed in Brussels on Friday, are:
- an "emergency brake" on migrants' in-work benefits, with payments phased in during their first four years in a new country, when there are "exceptional" levels of migration. The UK will be able to operate the brake for seven years
- child benefit for the children of EU migrants living overseas will now be paid at a rate based on the cost of living in their home country - applicable immediately for new arrivals and from 2020 for the 34,000 existing claimants
- The amending of EU treaties to state explicitly that references to the requirement to seek ever-closer union "do not apply to the United Kingdom", meaning Britain "can never be forced into political integration"
- The ability for the UK to enact "an emergency safeguard" to protect the City of London, to stop UK firms being forced to relocate into Europe and to ensure British businesses do not face "discrimination" for being outside the eurozone
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