A WORCESTERSHIRE MP has issued an impassioned plea to stay in the EU - using his late mother's memory as an inspiration.

Mark Garnier's mother Patricia, who died three years ago aged 85, was a founder member of UKIP and stood for parliament in St Ives at the 1997 general election.

Mr Garnier, a Conservative representing the Wyre Forest, said he "loved her dearly" but is now more convinced than ever that pro-Brexit campaigners have it wrong.

He said: "My mother had an infuriating habit - she would come up with an idea and then ask around of people's opinions, until she found someone who agreed with her.

"No matter how daft her plan was, no matter how many people she asked until she found a supporter, she could only focus on the one supporter, not the legions of gentle opposition.

"But as I look around at the current campaigns, I see her faults on a truly heroic scale. "At a debate in my constituency a week or two back, a supporter of Brexit pointed out that 300 businessmen and women said Britain would be better off outside the EU.

"I pointed out the thousands who through trade organisations, letters to newspapers and surveys had said they'd prefer to remain.

"'What do they know', came the heckle."

In a personal piece penned for the WriteYou website called 'I loved her dearly, but it didn't make her right' he also pointed to Michael Gove being unable to name "one single world leader" who is backing a Brexit, and chided him for neglecting to cite Vladmir Putin.

He also accused the Leave camp of "talking rubbish" over the claim the UK would be £350 million a week better off if it quit.

He said there was a "clear separation" between the Remain and Brexit camps, adding: "The remain camp looks at the issues with a clear head, a cold approach, an analytical bent that balances probabilities.

"My friends in the exit camp are passionate, enthused by a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to break the imagined shackles of a European 'super state'.

"But in so doing they have left rational thought behind."

He added: "My mother would be loving this.

"She would be sitting with her friends, watching the debates with earnest enthusiasm.

"'What does Obama know', she would cry. 'Vladimir Putin has our and the EU's interests at heart, that Donald Trump really does know what he is talking about'.

"I loved her dearly, but that didn’t make her right."