TRADE unionists must not let the Brexit debate divide the working class, RMT general secretary Mick Cash told Scottish TUC delegates on Monday evening.

Mr Cash told a fringe meeting organised by the Radical Options for Scotland and Europe campaign that a second referendum would “rip us asunder.” He argued such a move would “not only damage our democracy but divide and damage our class.”

Scottish Labour parliamentary candidate Helen McFarlane argued that the Brexit debate was taking place on the wrong terms. “We need to reach out and say ‘this is the vision we want to build,’ and then our follow-up questions are the constitutional ones,” she said.

Mr Cash said he believed that “we’ve made some mistakes on the left” in setting out a radical exit plan in insufficient detail, and warned: “What’s happened in all of this is that it’s started to divide the left.”

Meanwhile a motion endorsed in the congress hall raised the alarm over the impact of Brexit on the recruitment of medics.

The composite motion, moved by Hospital Consultants & Specialists Association national officer Bob Quick, argued that “the vital contribution to our NHS by EEA nationals needs to be recognised.” It said European medical qualifications should continue to be recognised.

And Royal College of Midwives employment director Jon Skewes said: “The midwives we so desperately need from Italy, Germany, Scandinavia or Spain are no longer coming.”

Delegates also voted in favour of a motion from the University & College Union calling for the protection of employment rights after Brexit as well as for employers to cover the costs of settlement fees for EU workers.