EU Referendum: Boris Johnson in Wolverhampton for final hours of campaigning

There was a flurry of activity in Queen Street as the leading Leave campaigner arrived at the Express & Star's offices for interviews.

He was greeted by people wanting selfie photos, and happily obliged. He stopped to chat to Louise Johnson, who runs a hair salon on the street, and joked that their names meant they were probably related.

• MORE: Latest poll of polls has Brexit just one point behind Remain on final day of campaigning

Mr Johnson told the Express & Star: "We're better off taking back control, getting out, starting a new relationship based on friendship, free trade and inter-governmental co-operation."

With one day to go before what promises to be a knife-edge vote on Britain's EU membership, leaders of the rival campaigns sides were crossing the country.

Prime Minister David Cameron joined political rivals on a battle-bus tour to promise a "bigger, better Britain" if voters back continued EU membership while Leave standard-bearer Boris Johnson flew across the country to tell voters that June 23 can be "independence day".

Mr Cameron insisted he expects to remain Prime Minister even if voters choose Brexit, telling the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: "I will accept the instructions of the British people and get to work on Friday morning to deliver them."

Mr Johnson agreed that the PM should "stay under any circumstances".

The Prime Minister rejected Leave claims that Britain would be "shackled to a corpse" if it chose to stick in the EU, telling supporters in Bristol the Remain case could be summed up in the single word "Together".

"If we want a bigger economy and more jobs, we are better if we do it together," said Mr Cameron.

"If we want to fight climate change, we are better if we do it together. If we want to win against the terrorists and keep our country safe, we are better if we do it together."

Mr Johnson, however, said it was "time to break away from the failing and dysfunctional EU system", telling activists in Maldon, Essex: "I do think that we are on the verge, possibly, of an extraordinary event in the history of our country and indeed in the whole of Europe.

"It's all going to be about getting our supporters out to vote and if we do it I really think tomorrow can be independence day."

Criss-crossing the country by plane, Mr Johnson signed autographs and posed for selfies with supporters in a number of locations but was heckled by 17-year-old Will Taylor in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, who said: "I'm annoyed that I can't vote and as a young person it's my future."

Mr Cameron was joined in Bristol by Labour's former deputy leader Harriet Harman as well as his predecessor as Tory PM Sir John Major, who branded the Brexit camp "the grave-diggers of our prosperity" who would have to answer for their "lies" during the referendum campaign.

Leaving the EU would be a "disproportionate" response to migration concerns and the country would live to regret it for a "long time to come", said Sir John.

"If our nation does vote to leave, we must respect their decision, but if they vote to leave on the basis of half-truths and untruths and misunderstandings, then pretty soon the grave-diggers of our prosperity will have some very serious questions to answer,"

Remain campaigners hailed a pro-EU letter to the Times, signed by 1,285 businesspeople employing 1.75 million workers, including 51 FTSE100 companies and 910 small businesses, who said Brexit would mean "uncertainty for our firms, less trade with Europe and fewer jobs".

The BBC reported that sugar giant Tate & Lyle had told employees that leaving the EU would benefit the business and protect their jobs.

The Leave campaign highlighted comments from Markus Kleber, head of the BDI - or federation of German industries - who urged the EU to agree a free trade deal with the UK after Brexit, warning it would "very, very foolish" to attempt to impose tariffs on the departing former member.

Mr Cameron delivered a scathing slapdown to his friend and Cabinet colleague Michael Gove after the leading Leave campaigner compared economists warning of the dangers of Brexit with scientists who smeared Albert Einstein in the Nazi era.

The PM said Mr Gove had made a "massive mistake," telling Sky News: "To hear the Leave campaign ... comparing independent experts and economists to Nazi sympathisers - I think they have rather lost it.

"These people are independent - economists who have won Nobel prizes, business leaders responsible for creating thousands of jobs, institutions that were set up after the war to try to provide independent advice. It is right to listen."