Vaz: Extremists are misusing jobs slogan

Former Europe Minister Keith Vaz said the phrase played into the hands of far-Right extremists.

Amid growing concern about the race- relations implications of the dispute, some trade union protesters outside refineries and power stations were replacing posters that displayed Mr Brown's slogan with the less incendiary phrase: "Fair access to local workers". At the same time, it emerged that BNP supporters have set up a website to recruit members by highlighting the protests against contracts going to firms that import overseas labour.

Asked on BBC TV about Mr Brown's phrase, Mr Vaz said: "I wouldn't have used such phrases but I think what the Prime Minister was referring to was apprenticeships rather than jobs.

"The slogan has been used, and misused by the far-Right, giving a misguided impression that somehow British workers at this firm have been denied contracts."

Mr Vaz, a loyalist, criticised trade unions for protesting at foreign workers, saying: "It's so sad to see members of the union involved in what has now got more than a hint of xenophobia."

There was bitter resentment from the unions that Lord Mandelson had claimed the dispute was fuelled by "the politics of xenophobia", suggesting their supporters were racist.

Kenny Ward, of Unite, insisted: "It's not about xenophobia. It's all about the right to get to work a reasonable distance from your home. We want parity, the opportunity to access these jobs."

A chorus of senior Labour figures are demanding more action against foreign firms taking jobs with what many suspect must be underpaid labour forces.

Former Cabinet minister Peter Hain said: "I still find it a puzzle that European companies can come in, bring their labour in, all the costs of accommodating them and transporting them, and then can still abide by national pay rates and conditions of service."

Labour MEP Claude Moraes said there was "growing confusion" over the European laws that the Government says forbids any intervention to reserve jobs for Britons.

Outside the Lindsey Oil Refinery in Lincolnshire where the dispute began strike committee member Phil Whitehurst said the protesters had nothing against the Italian and Portuguese workers whose firm was awarded a £200 million contract to build a new plant.

"People have said it's racist, it's not," he said. "We're not part of the BNP. I've shunned the BNP away from here.

"It's about British workers getting access to a British construction site."