JEREMY Corbyn’s own MPs have told him to stop banging on about a “good Brexit for workers”. The comments came after a speech in London yesterday in which the Labour leader attacked the Tories for failing business by having “botched” Brexit.

Corbyn claimed only his Labour Party could make Brexit work for manufacturers.

Launching his party’s Build It In Britain campaign, he told the audience at the EEF manufacturers’ organisation that Theresa May needed to negotiate a new customs union rather than risk the conditions attached to a free trade agreement with countries such as the US.

“A botched ... Brexit will sell our manufacturers short with the fantasy of a free trading, buccaneering future, which in reality would be a nightmare of chlorinated chicken, public services sold to multinational companies and our country in hock to Donald Trump,” Corbyn said.

He added :“It’s not often that the Labour Party and the Institute of Directors, the CBI and the TUC agree – we need to negotiate a new customs union.”

Corbyn also proposed a UK-first approach to government contracts, where British companies would be given preferred treatment on large infrastructure projects.

He said: “The state spends more than £200 billion per year in the private sector. That spending power alone gives us levers to stimulate industry, to encourage business to act in people’s interests by encouraging genuine enterprise, fairness, cutting-edge investment, high-quality service and doing right by communities.

“But to ensure prosperity here, we must be supporting our industries, making sure that where possible the Government is backing our industries and not merely overseeing their decline.”

Answering questions after the speech, Corbyn rubbished the idea he was being protectionist when a journalist compared Build It In Britain to Donald Trump’s America First policy.

Corbyn said: “It’s not economic nationalism, it’s good sense to invest in the skills that we’ve already got here and to improve those skills for the future. Nobody’s ever said I have something in common with Donald Trump before. It’s news to both of us, I suspect.”

The Labour leader condemned the Government’s Brexit plans as chaotic, accusing May of being under the control of the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg. “Never before has a prime minister discarded the interests of the country so recklessly in favour of the interests of their own party or their own self-preservation,” he said.

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The Scottish Labour MP for Edinburgh South, Ian Murray, suggested his leader needed to go further still. Murray, above, said: “Jeremy is right that we must reform the UK’s economy so that we are more productive and can secure long-term growth to raise the money to tackle poverty and inequality.

“But there is absolutely no such thing as a good Brexit for workers. The least-worst option for the economy and the manufacturing sector is permanent membership of the single market and the customs union.

“If Jeremy truly wants to stand up for workers, he should back this at the very least, but ideally he should join the growing support for a people’s vote on the final Brexit deal.”

After his speech, the veteran left-winger was also questioned on the latest anti-Semitism row to dog his leadership and his party.

Labour backbencher Margaret Hodge is facing an internal party investigation after she called Corbyn a “racist and anti-Semite”.

He said: “I think it’s right that any complaints are dealt with independently of me and that the party process has to take place on that.”