AHEAD of next week's EU referendum a series of Worcestershire figures have penned pieces for the Worcester News on why Britain should back Remain or Leave.

Here, West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin and former Labour Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, who lives in Malvern, say why Britain should stay in the bloc.

By Harriett Baldwin and Jacqui Smith

"ON June 23rd, Worcestershire goes to the polls again to make a historic and irreversible decision.

We are voting to Remain to keep our economic recovery on track and to protect jobs and working conditions.

We will vote to Remain in the EU because we have secured a special status within the EU, giving Britain the best of both worlds.

We will never sign up to the Euro.

We did not sign up to the no-borders Schengen area on mainland Europe.

We are more secure when we share intelligence with our EU neighbours and use the European Arrest Warrant to bring criminals to justice quicker.

The UK secured a deal to end 'Ever Closer Union'. We will never join a country called Europe.

Our access to the tariff free single market of 500 million people is key to over three million jobs in the UK, including thousands in Worcestershire - that's why so many local employers support Remain.

We can travel without visas to live, study, work and visit other EU countries and many local residents do so.

There are over a million of our friends, neighbours and family living in the EU. When we are there, we can use our free EHIC card to get health care.

Our economy is bigger because we are members of the single market.

Leaving would certainly mean job losses and a drop in foreign investment.

The only uncertainty is how big would the economic shock be? Bad or very bad? Even the Leave campaign have admitted there would be a short term economic shock which would cost jobs.

They think it is worth losing manufacturing jobs and hitting agriculture.

But tariffs for our food producers, tariffs for our manufacturers and uncertainty for our farmers would hit livelihoods.

Young people and the lowest paid would be hit hardest.

Yes, we do pay a net contribution to the EU budget which the Independent Institute for Fiscal Studies says is 24p per person per day.

In return we have had £1 billion of foreign direct investment each week for the last decade from companies around the world.

Three quarters of it comes here because we are in the EU. We also get tax revenues that are £36 billion higher, thanks to the bigger economy, helping to pay for our NHS and schools.

By pooling our sovereignty on trade matters we get enhanced trade deals not just across the 27 other EU countries but with 50 other countries as well. More deals are in the works.

Just think of the uncertainty, the years of fraught negotiations, only to end up in a worse trade deal than where we started, but permanently poorer and with a weaker economy with fewer jobs.

Yes, there are citizens of other EU countries working in the UK, including 250,000 in our public services like the NHS and social care.

But employment of UK-born citizens is at an all-time high while the Living Wage helps the lowest paid.

The Leave campaign are making false promises on controlling immigration.

They can't answer simple questions about whether they want more immigration from outside the EU, work permits and visas inside the EU, nor what would happen to the hundreds of thousands of British citizens living in the EU.

A vote to leave is a vote for risk, a vote for job losses, a vote to be poorer, a vote for a leap in the dark.

Worcestershire is stronger, safer and better off in a reformed Europe than out on our own."

* We've been fed lies over the EU and need to get out: by Anthony Warburton