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London - Britain's campaign to stay in the EU is ready to make a "patriotic case" that the country was safer in Europe, it said on Sunday, bringing in leading businessmen, politicians and television personalities to lead the cause.
Called "Britain Stronger in Europe", the 'in campaign' will launch on Monday, keen to show it has broad appeal to fight for Britain's membership of the world's largest trading bloc before a referendum which Prime Minister David Cameron said will be held by the end of 2017.
Cameron conceded ground to vocal Eurosceptics in the ruling Conservative Party by offering the referendum, hoping to bury an issue that divided the party for years and led to the downfall of two prime ministers.
A day after naming Conservative peer Stuart Rose, former boss of the Marks and Spencer store chain, as its head, the campaign said on Sunday it would be backed by fellow Conservative peer and television personality, Karren Brady, and former Labour minister, Peter Mandelson, among others.
"With backgrounds in security, culture, business, the youth movement, trade unions, academia, and politics, our board are ready to make the case for why Britain is stronger, safer, and better off in Europe," Will Straw, executive director of Britain Stronger in Europe, said in a statement.
"We chose the name Britain Stronger in Europe because in the coming referendum we will make a positive and patriotic case that it is in Britain's interest to remain part of Europe."
Cameron has pledged to renegotiate Britain's relationship with the EU to get "the best of both worlds" by asking for guarantees the country will be kept out of ever closer union and that the euro is not the EU's official currency, thereby protecting the pound in a multi-currency union.
He personally favours Britain staying in a reformed EU, but has said he would not be heartbroken to leave.
Opinion polls are increasingly split over whether the public wants to stay or not, with a migration crisis in Europe spurring fears about open borders with the 28-member bloc.
The main campaign to leave the European Union, called 'Vote Leave', launched on Thursday, drawing together politicians from the ruling Conservatives and opposition Labour party, and business leaders such as billionaire hedge fund manager Crispin Odey.
But 'out' campaigners are split, with Vote Leave competing with rival campaign, Leave.EU, backed by the Eurosceptic anti-EU United Kingdom Independence Party to unlock funding and campaign help by becoming the officially designated lobby group.
