Britain would lose at least half a million jobs within two years of a vote to leave the European Union and a fall in the value of the pound would push up inflation sharply, Finance Minister George Osborne said on Monday, May 23, Reuters says.

With a month to go until Britain holds its European Union membership referendum, Osborne said workers' earnings, when adjusted for inflation, would be almost 3 percent lower in two years' time, equivalent to a pay cut worth almost 800 pounds a year for someone working full time on the average wage.

Osborne was speaking as the finance ministry published a new report on the short-term implications of an "Out" vote.