France could end the agreement to have UK border controls at Calais if the UK votes to leave the EU, a French government minister has warned.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Emmanuel Macron said that bilateral non-EU agreements, such as the treaty of Le Touquet, which has led to the creation of the so-called “Jungle” migrant camp at Calais, a distance from British shores.

Macron went on to say that without the common focus of the EU if the UK chooses to leave, France and other EU nations could limit UK access to the single market in order to tempt London’s financial services workers to move to the continent “once their institutions lost the ‘passport’ rights that allow them to operate across the EU”.

“Out” campaigners have dismissed Macron’s comments as “scaremongering” at the behest of David Cameron, and continue to claim that the UK could maintain most of the benefits of EU membership without the costs if the public votes to leave.