The BBC have been reporting the story this morning

According to BBC 5 Live's chief political correspondent John Pienaar UK PM David Cameron is to allow ministers to campaign for either side in the referendum once a deal is reached.

Piennar says Cameron will announce the move later today.

The referendum is due to be held before the end of 2017 and will ask whether the UK should stay in the EU. Consensus though says that we will see it take place by or before this Summer.

June 2016 has been widely touted for a while as I reported back in July last year while Adam had a further report on a March date here

A number of UK government ministers are in favour of an Out vote, with Mr Cameron expected to campaign for Britain to remain in the EU.There has been increasing pressure on him recently to allow this free vote so this can be seen as a climb-down albeit one of common sense.

Cameron is fighting an uphill battle to get anything of note out of his EU counterparts but he does seem set to go to the country sooner rather than later

The free vote really does make EU exit more of a reality albeit still a hypothetical one at this point but we know that markets hate uncertainty.

Brexit, as I pointed out in my 2016 GBP forecasts, will continue to weigh on sentiment for the pound for some time yet. The picture is muddy to say the least.

The BBC has more here

UK's Cameron - Looking for an early EU showdown