SMALL business minister Anna Soubry has issued a passionate EU rallying call - urging Worcester people to "back Remain" for the sake of the economy.

The Tory minister visited the city today for a speech at Huntington Hall alongside former Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman as the battle for June 23 heats up.

In a defiant address, she told an invited audience the West Midlands region "has a terrifically strong case" for the benefits of being part of the bloc.

She also said a Brexit would push Britain's status to "a petulant child moaning on the sidelines", outside a trading bloc of 500 million customers.

Ms Soubry accused the Leave camp of spouting "nonsense" and said the EU was formed in response to two terrible world wars.

"Before we joined the EU, if you were a haulage firm in Liverpool and wanted to sell goods to Italy, you'd have to fill in 44 forms," she said.

"Now you just fill in one form. We also sell cars free of customs, tariffs and all the rest of it.

"We are not talking about tens of thousands of jobs, we're talking hundreds of thousands of jobs created in this country due to the EU.

"Because it's not just Jaguar Land Rover and other large companies that benefit, it's everyone in the supply chain.

"Make no mistake about it, this is not 'Project Fear' - it's reality.

"If we leave the EU we are not going to get a better deal than we get now, that's just fantasy.

"I am not prepared to sit back and see our economy suffer because some people think, somehow, that we'd be better off out the EU.

"Our economy will suffer, and if that happens it means less of the taxes and revenue we need to pay for public service."

Addressing an audience of business owners, Tory activists, fellow MPs and some young people, she also called the Leave campaign's £350 million weekly 'cost' figure as "a con", before drawing attention away from her party.

"This is not about the Conservative Party, it's not about Boris versus Cameron, it's not even about the Prime Minister - this is about something far bigger than that," she said.

"It's bigger than everything else. And I have no doubt how incredibly important it is that we Remain."

Caroline Spelman also told the audience to get their whole families involved, saying it would be "vital" to engage everyone from first time voters to the elderly.

She also backed Ms Soubry's reflections on the two wars, saying: "The EU wasn't just created for economics - it was created for peace."

After her speech Ms Soubry, who is also minister for industry and enterprise, told the Worcester News her central argument was the economics.

"In the West Midlands we export more out to the rest of the EU than we import in, what we've got is a good deal.

"A load of nonsense is being talked about the amount of money we pay in, it's not £350 million, it's about half of that.

"Overall, it's not a lot of money and that money is actually very well spent, it means we can trade freely with half a million customers."

She said Norway, which is often cited by the Leave camp, does not have a better deal and has to trade the EU without being "at the table affecting decisions".

"Of course it's not perfect, it would be silly to say it is," she said.

"But what we have is a good deal, if we left the EU we would not being able to negotiate a trade deal better than what we have now, it would be worse."

She also said the arguments over 'open borders' was "a myth", saying anyone entering the UK needs a passport - and sided with the benefits of migration.

"Immigration, overwhelmingly, is to the benefit of our country," she said.

"It's been going on for centuries, the people who arrive here come to work and the idea they clog up our NHS is offensive," she said.

"The time you actually see migrants in a hospital, it's probably because they are working there, not because they are taking from it."

Ms Soubry, an MP for Broxtowe, Nottinghamshire, became small business minister in May after taking over from Matthew Hancock.

She attends Cabinet meetings and was formerly a junior minister at the Ministry of Defence and the Department of Health.

Today's speech came during another busy day across Britain for both the Remain and Leave camps.

David Cameron has been campaigning alongside Mayor of London Sadiq Khan in the south east, weeks after claiming he was unfit for office because of links to Islamist extremists.

The Prime Minister was accused of participating in a racist campaign against Khan during the mayoral contest, but the two politicians buried the hatchet today as Mr Cameron praised Khan for being a “proud Muslim, a proud Brit and a proud Londoner”.

Tory MP Nadine Dorries claimed yesterday that the premier would "be toast within days" if Remain lose, or win by a narrow majority during an ITV interview.