Vote Leave's Robert Oxley found 34 of the firms received £93.5million in grants from the EU

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Unilever, pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and catering firm Compass Group were among leading FTSE- 100 businesses supporting a letter written by Downing Street’s “in” campaign.

But yesterday research by anti-Brussels campaigners showed many of the companies had received grants from the European Commission.

Many had also spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on lobbying in Brussels.

Around 200 business leaders employing 1.2 million people echoed the Prime Minister’s warning that an exit from the EU would put the British economy at risk.