FORMER Labour health minister Lord David Owen warned yesterday that the NHS would become “completely unrecognisable” if Britain voted to remain in the European Union.

Speaking at the launch of Vote Leave’s Save Our NHS campaign in London, the Social Democratic Party founder argued that leaving the EU would free Britain from the threat of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which could force governments to privatise the NHS and other public services.

Mr Owen also warned that EU legislation meant the NHS would be “ever more involved with EU competition, procurement law and marketisation” and called for decisions to be taken by British government and not by the European Commission.

Vote Leave labour movement co-ordinator Ian Davidson welcomed the comments, telling the star that Mr Owen’s denunciation of TTIP was a “significant gain for those who’ve been opposed to TTIP from day one.”

He said that the privatisation threat posed by the EU and TTIP was a “wake up call to everyone who wants to defend the NHS and public services.”

But a TUC study found that leaving would risk paid holidays, health and safety, and protections for agency workers.

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said that voting to leave was “a big risk for everyone who works for a living” as these rights, “fought for by generations of trade unionists,” were guaranteed by the EU.

She also warned that workers may no longer be able to take cases to the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

“Bad bosses will be rubbing their hands with glee if Brexit gives them the chance to cut workers’ hard-won protections,” she cautioned.

Trade Unions Against the EU campaign director Enrico Tortolano warned that the EU had persistently failed to uphold the “most fundamental” right to work, saying there were still 23 million workers unemployed across the eurozone.

He warned that the ECJ’s rulings had “shown beyond all reasonable doubt that business interests always trump workers’ rights,” adding that it is the “neoliberal EU that is rubbing its hands with delight as countries dismantle collective bargaining at its behest and introduce their own equivalents of the Trade Union Bill.”