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Thursday 18 February 2016 6:00 pm

EU referendum: Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn calls Prime Minister David Cameron’s reform agenda a “theatrical sideshow”

By: Lauren Fedor

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Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will use a trip to Brussels today to slam Prime Minister David Cameron's efforts to renegotiate Britain's relationship with the European Union, calling the negotiations a "theatrical sideshow".

Speaking at a meeting of the Party of European Socialists in Brussels – a stone's throw from where Cameron is making a final appeal to EU leaders to back his reform agenda – Corbyn will say the negotiations are "designed to appease [Cameron's] opponents within the Conservative party".

READ MORE: Tusk: Still no guarantee of an EU reform deal

"They are not about delivering reforms that would make the EU work better for working people," Corbyn will say, calling proposals for a so-called emergency brake on migrants' in-work benefits "largely irrelevant".

"David Cameron’s negotiations are a missed opportunity to make the case for the real reforms the EU needs: democratisation, stronger workers’ rights, an end to austerity, and a halt to the enforced privatisation of public services."

Corbyn first announced in September that Labour would campaign for the UK to stay in the EU, regardless of the outcome of Cameron's renegotiations.

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