Top employers back EU 'stay' bid
Bosses of companies with thousands of staff in Shropshire have put their names to a letter calling for Britain to remain within the EU.
Some of the county's best-known companies are among those whose management have pinned their hopes to the 'stay' campaign, by signing an open letter published in The Times.
The big names include Sir Roger Carr, the chairman of BAE Systems, which has a tank maintenance site in Telford employing about 300 people.
Peter Rogers, chief executive of Babcock, which took over Defence Support Group's 867 staff at MoD Donnington in late 2014, is also a signtaory, as are BT's chairman Sir Mike Rake and chief executive Gavin Patterson. BT employs hundreds in Shropshire, including at its international monitoring centre in Oswestry.
Nigel Stein, chief executive of engineering specialist GKN, which has a Land Systems base in Telford, and David Atkins of Hammerson, which owns Telford's Wrekin and Forge retail parks, are also among the 200 signatories, as is Rupert Soames, the boss of Serco which operates Shropshire Council's leisure centres.
The list includes 36 FTSE 100 companies, who said a Brexit would "deter investment and threaten jobs". But the total number falls short of the 50 to 80 that had previously been suggested would sign, and the letter includes some notable absences, such as Tesco, Sainsbury's and Barclays.
Among the signatories are Tory donors and figures who have accepted government roles under Mr Cameron's premiership, according to The Times.
The support from some of Britain's most well-known businesses will be welcomed in Downing Street as a growing number of Conservatives declared they would be backing the 'leave' campaign.
Richard Tice, co-founder of the Leave.EU campaign group, said: "We remember well how many large businesses and EU funded groups like the CBI said we should join the euro. How wrong they were."
