United States President Barack Obama made a poignant plea to the British electorate saying that as a 'friend and ally' they need to 'stick together' with the rest of the European Union.
According to the Guardian, Obama, who arrived in the UK to celebrate Queen Elizabeth's 90th birthday, used careful diplomatic language to make a direct appeal to the voters.
"As citizens of the United Kingdom take stock of their relationship with the EU, you should be proud that the EU has helped spread British values and practices - democracy, the rule of law, open markets - across the continent and to its periphery," he wrote in an article in the Daily Telegraph.
Evoking the close cooperation between the US and UK during the second world war, citing president Franklin D Roosevelt's toast to King George VI in 1939, when he said: "I am persuaded that the greatest single contribution our two countries have been enabled to make to civilisation, and to the welfare of peoples throughout the world, is the example we have jointly set by our manner of conducting relations between our two nations."
He added: "The US sees how your powerful voice in Europe ensures that Europe takes a strong stance in the world, and keeps the EU open, outward-looking, and closely linked to its allies on the other side of the Atlantic. So the US and the world need your outsized influence to continue - including within Europe."
UK Prime Minister David Cameron and Obama will also discuss the progress in taking on ISIS in Syria, where British planes have joined the US bombing campaign.
