MORE than 1,200 businesses have signed a powerful letter urging voters to back Remain - including firms in Worcestershire.

A big lobby of West Midlands' companies are among those to have teamed up in a last-ditch bid to inject some late momentum into the campaign.

In their letter, seized on by campaigners from the 'Stronger In' camp, they say the region's economy benefits "massively" from the Single Market.

Among the signatures are the bosses from Worcester based IT firm Titania, which has lucrative security contracts around the world and Malvern's Rift Technology, electronics and engineering experts.

Stourport-based Mabal Cables, a mechanical engineering firm founded 50 years ago with strong links to Europe, is also on the list as is Hereford's Caittom Publishing and Reins Farm and Heller Machine Tools, both in Redditch.

The letter - which has been signed by 38 firms in the West Midlands as part of the 1,200 nationwide - has been leapt on by campaigners.

It says: "We know our firms are stronger in Europe.

"Our reasons are straightforward: businesses and their employees benefit massively from being able to trade inside the world’s largest single market without barriers.

"As business people we are always looking to the future - and a future inside the EU is where we see more opportunities for investment, growth and new jobs."

It says Brexit would leave Britain having to renegotiate fresh trade deals "from scratch", damaging exports and their own prospects too.

It comes a day after new figures were released by the Treasury claiming a Brexit would see a dramatic fall in overseas investment in West Midlands, costing an estimated 51,409 jobs by 2030.

Treasury analysis suggested there would be £14 billion less investment into the West Midlands.

But the likes of Brexit-backing entrepreneur Neil Westwood, who runs Worcester-based Magic Whiteboard, has criticised the claims and says firms will be better off out.

"We run a successful business in Worcester and make decisions every day by calculating risk," he said.

"We believe that it is more risky to stay in the EU."

The likes of billionaire entrepreneur Sir James Dyson has called the Remain side's claims "a load of cobblers", saying British firms would be better off out.

"When the Remain campaign tells us no-one will trade with us if we leave the EU, sorry, it's absolute cobblers," he said.

"Our trade imbalance with Europe is running at £9 billion a month and rising, if this trend continues, that is £100 billion a year."