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Rob Griffiths: Left must expose pro-austerity EU

BRITAIN’S left must expose the “big business” character of the European Union to avoid playing into the hands of the right, Communist Party leader Rob Griffiths said yesterday.

Mr Griffiths made the warning at a meeting in Yorkshire after European election results saw Ukip and European fascists make gains. 

He told Sheffield Trade Union Council that the right was “diverting anti-EU sentiment into the dead-end of xenophobia and racism.”

He said: “The labour movement should be uniting people against austerity and privatisation which is being promoted by the EU and by all the major political parties in Britain.”

Mr Griffiths lambasted the Liberal Democrats, who are baying for the head of their leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg following the party’s disastrous performance in local and European elections.

“Blaming Nick Clegg for the Liberal Democrat collapse is as much use as blaming the captain of the Titanic after it has sunk,” the CP general secretary said.

“The Lib Dem iceberg is its support for the Tory-led Government and its right-wing policies — totally contrary to what they were saying in the general election campaign.

“They were promoting themselves as the real opposition to the Tories.”

Liberal Democrat activists are attempting to oust Mr Clegg by rallying 75 local branches to call for a leadership contest. 

But Mr Griffiths said it was too little, too late after the party’s conference voted overwhelmingly to support Tory economic policy, including cuts to jobs and welfare. 

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