LORD Stuart Rose’s campaign to stay in the European Union “does not speak for the labour movement,” trade unionists charged yesterday.

Britain Stronger in Europe was launched yesterday, led by the former Marks & Spencer chief executive — now chairman of firms including Ocado and Fat Face.

Tory peer Lord Rose claimed that leaving the EU would diminish Britain’s status in the world and be bad for jobs.

But general union GMB said that his record at M&S “made it very clear that the Remain campaign doesn’t intend to place a high priority on employment rights.”

While heading the high-street retailer Lord Rose presided over a “two-tier workforce,” GMB southern regional secretary Paul Maloney warned.

GMB is still campaigning to end the division of the staff at M&S’s Swindon depot.

“Today mothers on the bus on their way into work at this M&S depot, having left their children with childminders, are getting text messages saying they are not needed that day,” the union said.

“Many of these workers were employed when Stuart Rose ran M&S and this is his legacy.

“We need to be clear that what is happening at M&S in Swindon is entirely consistent with what Lord Rose as leader of the Remain campaign stands for.”

The Labour Party passed a motion at its conference last month to oppose working with any EU referendum campaign that supported cutting employment or social rights for British workers — precisely the areas in which Prime Minister David Cameron wants to renegotiate the terms of Britain’s EU membership.

“We could not expect our members and working people to understand why we would work alongside people like Lord Rose,” said Mr Maloney.

Luton North MP Kelvin Hopkins said that “those in favour of staying in (the EU) are mostly global multinationals who want freedom to move their money around.”

At Britain Stronger in Europe’s east London launch event yesterday, Lord Rose said that leaving the EU would be a “leap in the dark” that would put Britain’s prosperity and security at risk.

But the Labour Leave campaign co-chair retorted that such scaremongering was nonsense.

“We have an enormous trade deficit with the EU. We buy twice as many cars from the EU as we export to it,” Mr Hopkins said. “The idea that the EU is going to inflict some sort of trade war on us if we leave is irrational nonsense when it makes such a profit from us. Leaving wouldn’t hurt British industry.”

Mr Hopkins cited recent comments from Vauxhall chairman Tim Tozer that the firm — which employs 35,000 people in Britain — would continue to make cars in Britain whether it left the EU or not.