Funny thing is that it was the Conservatives who initially brought us into the EEC (precurser to the EU).
Free trade does seem quite useful from a personal point of view, you can buy things from the EU without paying extra duty or taxes, and I imagine it is way more important for companies.
Free movement is handy, it is way less of a pain to go through EU immigration than to go to the USA, Canada, Australia etc.
No one is ever going to take us out of the EU anyway, even the most right wing of the Conservatives probably don't want out of the free trade aspects, and it's pretty unlikely that the rest of Europe would let us just leave the social and other stuff without leaving the free trade agreements, as they are so interlinked nowadays.
would all the brits working in europe be forced home if we left the eu?
They'd probably have to apply for work permits in their host countries, same as in Switzerland. If they were lucky, the country would give them priority, and allow them to change jobs (Switzerland does now for EU citizens, but didn't used to), if not, they'd be like work permit workers in the USA, where if they get sacked / made redundant, they are likely to have to go home to their country of origin.
Joe