Jeremy Corbyn will make a fresh push to persuade Labour supporters to back keeping Britain in the EU as poll showed the Brexit camp in a 10-point lead.
He will hail the “positive, optimistic” case for remaining in the bloc amid concerns the party’s core supporters – seen as crucial to securing a Leave victory” – are not being persuaded.
Amid questions over his commitment to the cause, he said last night ahead of a campaign visit to Aberdeen that he was “not a huge fan” of the EU but was 70-75% in favour of staying.
“What I believe is that this is a practical decision that we take in order to get better conditions across the whole continent for everybody,” he told Channel 4’s The Last Leg.
He said he was not surprised that prominent Labour backbencher John Mann had joined the pro-Brexit camp but insisted he was committed to pushing the rival case.
The latest survey by ORB for The Independent put the scores at 55% to 45% in favour of pulling out, after allowing for an individual’s likelihood to vote.
That is a four-point jump in support from April when Vote Leave led by 51 to 49 and an exact reversal of the position when the series of surveys began a year ago.
A 56% majority of 2015 Labour voters back continued membership but 44% are pro-Brexit – while Tories are 62% to 38% in favour of divorce from Brussels.
Vote Leave sought to play down talk of result-changing shift in momentum, claiming their own data showed the contest remained on a knife edge.
But Ukip leader Nigel Farage renewed his claim that withdrawal from the bloc was firmly on the cards.
“My vision is to put this country and the British people first and for us to divorce ourselves from political union and to re-engage with the rest of the world,” he said in a BBC interview in which he was pressed to justify claims about the threat from immigration.
“It is upbeat, it optimistic and you know something, I think we’re going to win.”
Mr Corbyn downplayed the role of Brussels in securing rights such as paid holiday and maternity leave which he said “wasn’t a gift from the European Union, it was collective action by unions across Europe”.
But he said co-operation within the bloc was vital in a range of areas.
Asked to rate his passion for keeping the UK in the EU on a scale of one to 10, he said: “We’re looking at seven, seven and a half”.
Tories such as the PM wanted a Europe “dominated by global corporations” and would back the so-called TTIP trade deal with the US that Mr Corbyn opposes, he said.
“I want to see a Europe that is about social cohesion, that is about better human rights, that is about workers’ rights and is also about taking a European response to help victims of wars who are going through the most appalling situation on the borders of Europe at the moment.
“I suspect his views are different”.
The referendum battle extended to the Queen’s birthday honours list, with the Government rejecting claims Mr Cameron had “abused” the system by giving gongs to supporters of EU membership.
Vote Leave chairman and Labour MP Gisela Stuart denounced the awards as a “shabby stitch-up” and accused the Prime Minister of stooping to “a new low” in his drive to secure a Remain vote in the June 23 referendum.
But a Government spokesman said the honours were unconnected to the referendum, pointing out that names for the Queen’s Birthday Honours list were selected by independent committees and also included a number of prominent supporters of the Leave campaign.
