Former British ambassador to Israel Matthew Gould has been put in charge of a government ‘referendum unit’ to support the case for the UK to remain in the EU.

According to the Times, Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne put Mr Gould in charge of a team tasked with compiling a series of dossiers that will lay out the arguments against a Brexit.

In 2010 Mr Gould became Britain’s first Jewish ambassador to Israel, before stepping down last year to become Director of Cyber Security and Information Assurance at the Cabinet Office.

Mr Gould has a reputation for being a forward-thinking, business-minded innovator among his peers.

In the JC last week, business leaders and rabbis backed Mr Cameron's campaign for Britain to stay in the EU.

Lord Livingston, the former BT chief executive, said: "I believe we should stay in the EU. If we left, there would be significant uncertainty for our exporters and potentially quite a lot of delay to provide new trade agreements to replace those we already have. I don't think that the EU stifles us - it's not perfect but the alternative is distinctly less perfect still, and more uncertain."

Rabbi Laura Janner-Klausner said: “As Jews, since the EU was set up, we've seen a level of civility in Europe that we've never seen before.”