THE president of bosses’ club the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) revealed the reality behind “EU reform” yesterday, admitting he wanted the Tories to negotiate away workers’ rights. 

Tory PM David Cameron has promised an in-out referendum on Britain’s EU membership and the poll could be held as soon as next May. 

Speaking at the CBI’s annual bash, which was attended by Chancellor George Osborne, president Sir Mike Rake called for business leaders to “speak out early” about the benefits of staying in the EU.

“We support the Prime Minister’s drive for a more competitive EU,” he said.

“The new government can count on business’s support to make this happen.”

Slippery Sir Mike was quizzed about what “more competition” would mean for working people when he appeared on Radio 4’s Today programme. Asked whether it would damage workers’ rights, he just insisted: “more flexibility leads to more employment.”

But when he was pressed on whether it should be easier to sack staff, he admitted: “Yes, of course it is part of that.

“Workers should have appropriate rights.

“But where the rights are so extensive it leads to employers not being willing to employ people, that is not healthy to anyone.”

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said business leaders “should be careful what they wish for” if they wanted Britain to remain in the EU.

“If companies push for EU renegotiation on the basis of weakening workers’ rights they will make the Yes vote they want less likely.”

General union GMB warned that Tory reform included scrapping the 48-hour cap on the working week, introduced to stop a repeat of the Clapham Junction rail crash, in which 35 people were killed and 500 injured, that was partly caused by the drivers’ exhaustion. GMB also warned that the reform could see work breaks and paid holiday put at risk. “If what David Cameron brings back from the renegotiations tilts the balance even further away from standards for workers, as the CBI wants, many organisations traditionally in favour will campaign for a No vote,” said GMB general secretary Paul Kenny.