“NOW is the time to strike on TTIP,” Glasgow South West incumbent MP Ian Davidson told a Scottish Campaign Against Eurofederalism fringe meeting on Tuesday night.

Mr Davidson, who faces a challenge from SNP trade union group secretary Chris Stephens to retain his working-class constituency, pointed out that an unusually unpredictable election meant politicians were more likely to pay attention to constituents’ concerns about the transatlantic treaty.

The deregulation deal being negotiated in secret by the US and EU underlined the “direction of travel” towards privatisation and attacks on workers’ rights intrinsic to the European project, he argued.

“As [the late MEP] Alex Falconer used to say, it’s like piss running
down the close,” he said — “you might be able to block the flow here or there but it'll find a way round.”

Chairing, composer and Musicians Union Scotland and Northern Ireland chair Edward McGuire argued that it was up to trade unions to take the lead in exposing the EU’s anti-working class character.