JEREMY CORBYN vowed yesterday that a Labour government would exercise Britain’s veto over the secretive TTIP trade deal — and challenged David Cameron to do the same.

In a major speech on the EU referendum, the Labour leader argued that the future of workers’ rights enshrined in European law were at stake on June 23.

But Mr Corbyn was also highly critical of EU pro-privatisation policies, the treatment of Greece and the trade deal being negotiated with the US behind closed doors.

He said he shared the concerns of thousands of people who had written to him about the potential of TTIP to “open up public services to further privatisation and make privatisation effectively irreversible.” 

And he called on the Prime Minister to follow the example of French President Francois Hollande who has said he will refuse to sign the deal without cast-iron protections for public services.

The deal cannot be completed without the support of all 28 member states.

Mr Corbyn said: “David Cameron needs to make clear now that if Britain votes to remain this month he will block any TTIP trade treaty that threatens our public services, our consumer and employment rights and that hands over power to giant corporations to override democratically elected governments.”

The pledge marks a significant policy change for Labour, which had until now called for safeguards without threatening to bring down the entire deal.

It comes after the government was forced to accept an amendment last month “regretting” that there was not legislation in the Queen’s Speech that explicitly excluded the NHS from TTIP.

If Britain remains in the EU, Mr Corbyn said Labour would also demand changes to state aid rules against public ownership and seek to block any elements of the Fourth Railway Package that would prevent a renationalisation of the railways.

He also called on the Prime Minister to close a loophole in the Posting of Workers Directive that allows bosses to undercut the wages of workers here with foreign labour.

“Although the instances are relatively few, such incidents undermine community cohesion by exploiting migrant workers and undercutting local workers,” he said.  

GMB union leader Tim Roache said yesterday that Labour had been “silent” over the EU referendum under Mr Corbyn’s leadership and needed to be “bolder and braver” in making the case for immigration.

But the Leave campaign highlighted polling which shows most Labour voters believe free movement of people has driven down wages and is bad for the NHS.

Labour MP and Vote Leave chair Gisela Stuart said: “The Labour Party’s support for the EU is not only out of touch with views previously expressed by our own leader, but out of touch with Labour voters too.”