A former trade union leader has warned that the driving down of wages and attacks to terms and conditions in Britain are key reasons why working-class voters are turning to Ukip.

Speaking to the Communist Party of Britain (CPB) political committee on Monday night former T&G head of transport Graham Stevenson highlighted the recent surge in support for the right-wing party.

“People who fear for their jobs or need work desperately, but who see employers using EU membership to take on super-exploited labour instead, are turning to Ukip out of despair and disillusionment with the mainstream pro-EU parties,” he declared.

Yet the irony, he pointed out, was that Ukip also supported a so-called “flexible labour market” in which trade unionism was weakened.

“Nigel Farage and his crew are extreme neo-Thatcherites who think British governments should be free to attack trade union and employment rights even more harshly, without even the modest limits implied by the EU ‘social partnership’ model,” Mr Stevenson argued.

He cited Ukip support for the City of London, privatisation, deregulation and lower taxes on big business and the rich as evidence that the party fundamentally opposes the interests of working people.

The CPB Midlands district secretary explained: “Ukip shares the same commitment as the Tories, Labour, the Lib Dems and the SNP to the ‘flexible labour market’, while hiding this behind anti-EU rhetoric to give people the opposite impression.”

Britain’s communists reiterated their call for Labour to counter Ukip, the Tories and the SNP with a more critical stance on the EU and bold support for public ownership and trade union rights.