BIG-BUSINESS lobbying group the CBI was embarrassed yesterday by a leak of secret documents about its campaign to keep Britain in the European Union.

Minutes marked “confidential” from a meeting of the CBI president’s committee held in July were revealed by the Vote Leave campaign.

The CBI has publicly claimed that it will back neither the In nor Out campaigns in the forthcoming referendum on EU membership.

But the documents reveal how the CBI, which has been handed more than €1 billion (£700 million) by the European Commission in the last five years, plans to “step up” its campaign to stay in.

They show that president Sir Mike Rake urged his successor Paul Drechsler to “use [the] CBI’s influence to keep us in,” despite the fact that 81 per cent of the firms it represents having rules banning partisan political campaigning.

Trade Unions Against the EU spokesman Brian Denny said: “These huge companies are riding roughshod over the law to defend their financial and political interests, which chime so closely with those of the corporate-run European Union.

“The EU was always designed to represent the direct interests of capital against those of the people, regardless of whatever spin has been put on it over the decades.”

Sir Mike called in May for workers’ rights to be rolled back as part of EU reform, claiming: “More flexibility leads to more employment.”

But CBI boss John Cridland stepped back from that stance this week, warning that including workers’ rights in EU talks would stir up a “hornets’ nest.”

The minutes also reveal that the CBI has received presentations from two Tory government ministers — Francis Maude and Greg Hands.