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Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has warned of “enormous consequences" if Britain votes to leave the EU later this month.

Mr Corbyn was speaking at a Remain campaign rally at Cardiff City Hall last night ahead of the referendum on June 23.

The Labour leader argued that Wales’ crisis-hit steel industry should benefit from the European Union ’s ability to act collectively against cheap steel from China and elsewhere being dumped on the global markets.

Read more: This is what the polls tell us about the EU referendum

He said: “Surely if we have a European-wide protection of our manufacturing base through preventing Chinese dumping that is a good thing.

“I think it would be quite difficult for any country on its own to say to a very powerful country like China ‘we’re not going to accept your under-priced steel’.

“So I think there is a solidarity there that has to be achieved and there’s more chance of agreeing on a level of steel production all across Europe collectively than there is on our own.”

(Image: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

He added that he has huge support for the Port Talbot workers and said he had “huge admiration” for them.

“The way they’ve stood together and stood up for the industry, I’ve been there several times recently and I’ve got huge admiration for them. I hope that the campaign is working.”

Mr Corbyn spoke of workers’ rights, holiday pay and limits on working hours as just some of the regulations brought about thanks to the European Union.

'I want to see an end to zero-hours contracts'

Asked why he thought many people in Wales are likely to vote to leave, despite huge investment in the country from the European Union, he said: “I think people don’t often understand the importance of the issue coming up.”

He said “enormous consequences” would follow a vote to leave the EU.

“They are economic, of course, because of jobs that are dependent on sales to the European Union. Think Airbus, think steel, and think many other industries in Wales that are dependent on that,” he said.

Read more: Someone has vandalised this Vote Leave sign and it'll make you laugh

Mr Corbyn cited four weeks paid holiday, paternity and maternity rights as just some of the working rights and regulations British people enjoy.

But he admitted there are further improvements he wants to see – including an end to zero-hours contracts in the UK and across Europe, instead wanting a minimum hours agreement to give workers stability.

He said: “I want to see an end to zero-hours contracts in the UK and across Europe and the way in which, quite cynically, these companies often employ people on zero-hours contracts and rely on the state as a whole to subsidise that through in work benefits.

“What we need is a minimum hours agreement so that everyone at least knows what their basic income is going to be.”

Mr Corbyn began his speech congratulating Labour for the Assembly election result.

'There's a positive case to be made'

He said: “This is a Labour event. We are proud to put forward the case.

“There’s a positive case to be made.”

He referenced “myth-making and prophecies of doom” from leading Tories.

Read more: Brexit concerns slowing down construction industry

The Labour leader highlighted 200,000 jobs in Wales that are linked to the European Union during his Vote Remain speech as just one benefit the country sees from its membership.

But he warned of a “bonfire of regulations” if there were to be a Leave result.

Mr Corbyn said: “Those that are arguing for Brexit, some of them, those particularly on the right of the Conservative Party, they see June 24 as the day they start ripping up regulations. The race to the bottom is a race to disaster for all of us.”

(Image: Matthew Horwood)

Meanwhile, former Labour Foreign Secretary David Miliband has suggested Mr Corbyn should share a platform with David Cameron to make the case for Britain remaining in the EU.

He said he had been happy to appear alongside the Prime Minister to make the case for Remain, adding: “Where centre-right and centre-left agree, we should say so.”

Mr Corbyn faced questions over his commitment to the campaign after giving a speech in which he attacked the Government’s “prophecies of doom” about the potential economic fallout of Brexit.

Read more: Labour is a party 'for the entire community' claims Jeremy Corbyn on eve-of-poll trip to Wales

The Leave camp latched on to the speech and claimed it had caused “chaos” in the Remain campaign, but the Labour leader denied he was “muddying the waters” on his party’s stance – insisting he was making a “distinctive” case to stay in the EU.

Writing for the Times Red Box, Mr Miliband said: “There are overwhelming cross-party reasons of national interest – to do with national security and foreign policy for example - for Britain to be part of the EU.

“But there are also distinctive centre-left arguments to vote to Remain. In the last three weeks of the campaign, they deserve to be given full vent. There is a progressive and positive as well as patriotic case that can be made with energy and drive.”