DAVID Cameron has called on businesses in Oxfordshire to rally behind him ahead of the referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union (EU).

Writing exclusively for the Oxford Mail's sister paper The Oxford Times, the Prime Minister and Witney MP says the county’s firms are "on the frontline" of the campaign and urges them to tell others "why it's so crucial we remain in".

He says free trade with Europe and access to the single market of 500 million consumers are "crucial" to local firms, arguing the cost of so-called "Brexit" would hit economic stability and consumer confidence.

Mr Cameron adds: "Whatever your line of business, what happens at the referendum on June 23 will affect you for decades to come".

His comments comes after a poll by the Oxfordshire Business Barometer, a quarterly survey run by Withy King solicitors in association with InBusiness, last month found 58 per cent of the county’s business leaders agreed leaving the EU would negatively impact jobs, businesses and the economy. Just 22 per cent disagreed, while the remaining 20 per cent said they were unsure what the impact would be.

This is at odds with opinion polls nationally which show the country remains divided on the issue.

In his article for the Times' InBusiness magazine, Mr Cameron insists that although the EU is "far from perfect", Britain is affected by it anyway and can have more influence from within.

He says tariff-free trade with Europe is "vital" to the county’s economic success, adding: "That’s what our membership of the EU helps to deliver, with full access to the single market, and a continent full of customers on Oxfordshire’s doorstep."

He claims those campaigning for Brexit have "no plan" for life outside the trading and political bloc, dismissing suggestions that free-trade deals can be struck without concessions on free movement and tariffs.

But giving the arguments why Oxfordshire people should vote to leave the EU, former BBC economics editor Peter Jay says the EU "remains a reactionary, inward-looking and exclusionary bloc, turning its back on and fearful of the wider world".

In his counter-piece in our InBusiness magazine, Mr Jay, a former Ambassador to the United States and now a Woodstock Town Councillor, adds: "Shutting ourselves up in some Europeans-only laager is no way to embrace the challenges and the opportunities of the bigger world.

"We cannot know what the big questions will be in 20 and 50 and 100 years’ time, still less what their best answers will be.

"But we can know that it will be better still to be autonomous, a player able to make choices."