Jeremy Corbyn has again rebuffed the demands of many of his own activists for Labour to become the party of remain at the European elections later this month, insisting he will stand on the “common ground”.

Launching his party’s manifesto for the European elections in Chatham, Kent, the Labour leader said voters should resist being defined simply as leavers or remainers.

“We could allow ourselves to be defined only as ‘remainers’ or ‘leavers’ labels that meant nothing to us only a few years ago. But where would that take us? Who wants to live in a country stuck in this endless loop?” he asked.

In his speech to an audience of local activists at Kent University’s Medway campus, he sought to shift the debate beyond Brexit, and return to some of the themes that played well for Labour during the 2017 general election campaign, including public spending cuts and workers’ rights.

“Some people seem to look at the issue the wrong way round – they seem to think the first question is leave or remain, as if that is an end in itself. I think they’re wrong. The first question is what kind of society do we want to be?

“The real divide in our country is not how people voted in the EU referendum. The real divide is between the many and the few,” he said.

Unlike the resurgent Liberal Democrats, whose campaign manifesto has a “bollocks to Brexit” placard on its cover, Corbyn repeatedly stressed during his speech and in the Q&A session afterwards that Labour would not pick a side.

As democratic socialists, he said, Labour could not ignore the result of the 2016 referendum. “We‘re not trying to win the votes of just leavers, or just remainers. Instead, we’re reaching out to everyone,” he said.

Chatham is in the South East region for the European elections; but Corbyn was introduced by one of the party’s candidates in Scotland, Jayne Baxter.

The message on the cover of Labour leaflets posted to households this week urges the public to “vote Labour and tell the Tories you are fed up with their divisive austerity policies and incompetent government”.

The Labour group on Medway council made gains at last week’s local elections, though the Conservatives remained in control, and Labour is taking its message to areas in which it would hope to translate that into seats at a general election.

The Medway campus, where the launch was held, is in the Rochester and Strood constituency once held by Mark Reckless, the Conservative who defected to Ukip - and currently the seat of junior business minister Kelly Tolhurst, who won it in 2017 with a majority of just under 10,000.

Q&A How do European parliamentary elections work in the UK? Show The UK elects 73 members (MEPs) to the European parliament, which is made up of 751 MEPs elected by the 28 member states of the EU. The UK is split into 12 European electoral regions, and each region is represented by between three and 10 MEPs. The constituencies are:

South East England (10 MEPs)

London (8)

North West England (8)

East of England (7)

West Midlands (7)

South West England (including Gibraltar) (6)

Yorkshire and the Humber (6)

Scotland (6)

East Midlands (5)

Wales (4)

North East England (3)

Northern Ireland (3) You can find out who is standing for election in your area here. In England, Scotland and Wales, voters can choose to vote for one party or individual. The ballot paper lists the parties standing with the names of their potential MEPs, as well as any individuals who are standing as independent candidates. The D’Hondt method of proportional representation is used to calculate how many seats each party or individual receives. In Northern Ireland, the single transferable vote method is used, where each voter ranks candidates in order of preference, marking 1 beside their most preferred candidate, 2 beside their second choice, and so on. These votes are then used to allocate Northern Ireland’s three MEPs. Those elected as MEPs on 23 May will represent the UK when the new European parliament assembles on 1 July, until such time as the UK ceases to be a member of the European Union.

Talks with the government over a potential cross-party Brexit deal broke up on Wednesday night, with Labour striking a markedly more positive tone than in recent days.

But Corbyn played down the prospects of an early breakthrough, saying: “It’s actually quite difficult negotiating with a disintegrating government, with cabinet ministers jockeying for position. [But] it is in the country’s interests to get this sorted, one way or the other.”

The one line in the Labour manifesto that refers to “the option of a public vote” on a Brexit deal was the subject of a lengthy wrangle at a meeting of Labour’s ruling national executive committee last week. Corbyn said he hoped that if there were a public vote, it would be a “healing process”.

The 28-page document launched at the event covers a series of domestic issues, including Labour’s pledge to reverse Tory spending cuts, and global challenges such as climate change, as well as a section on “tackling the far right and building unity”.

Corbyn also said Labour was the only party that could combat the “snake oil” peddled by Nigel Farage.

He accused the Brexit party leader of advocating a “Donald Trump Brexit” that would expose the UK to a “reckless and bellicose” US.

“Nigel Farage’s Brexit is a Brexit for conspiracy theorists. For those who see Muslims and migrants or George Soros as the enemy. Only Labour can see off the Farage snake oil in this election. And stand by our country’s values of tolerance, openness and diversity.”

He added: “Labour will never be the party of the 52% or of the 48%. We are the part of the great majority who reject the politics of smear and scapegoating.”

Senior Labour figures, including the shadow Brexit secretary, Keir Starmer, and the deputy leader, Tom Watson, who would have liked Labour to issue a full-throated call for a referendum, have been stressing the need to challenge the values of the Brexit party.

On Wednesday, Watson told the second meeting of the Future Britain Group – the centre-left internal grouping he set up after the breakaway Change UK party was formed – that “whatever the different views on the response to the referendum in the room, these European elections are being seen and will be interpreted as pro- or anti-the Farage view of the country. That gives us something to fight for.”

While Corbyn launched the party’s official campaign, a group of rebel leftwing MPs, including the shadow Treasury minister, Clive Lewis, have been touring the country holding “Love socialism, hate Brexit” rallies, at which they unequivocally demand a “people’s vote”.