Former Marks and Spencer boss Lord Stuart Rose to lead campaign to keep Britain in EU

LONDON: Lord Stuart Rose, former boss of Marks and Spencer and one of Britain's most well-known businessmen, will head the campaign to keep the country in the European Union, the "In Campaign" said.

The debate about Britain's membership in the world's largest trading bloc is heating up as the country prepares for a referendum, which Prime Minister David Cameron has said will be held by the end of 2017.

"I believe that Britain is stronger in Europe," Rose said in a statement released late on Friday.

"The choice in the coming referendum is between remaining stronger, safer and better off inside Europe, or taking a leap into the unknown, risking our prosperity, threatening our safety, and diminishing our influence in the world."

Rose, who is currently chairman of online supermarket Ocado, is a member of the House of Lords, Britain's unelected upper chamber, representing Cameron's Conservative party. As a former head of Marks & Spencer, Britain's biggest clothing retailer, he will add a strong voice to the view among many big British businesses that the country is better off in the bloc than out.

Many UK companies are worried about the possibility of losing easy access to their main export markets and there are also concerns about the impact on Britain's financial services industry if Britons vote to leave the EU.

On the other side, a group of business leaders and lawmakers launched a campaign this week to persuade Britons to vote to leave the bloc. Prime Minister Cameron has promised to renegotiate Britain's ties with the 28-member bloc before holding the referendum.