Roundup: Britain's Labour leader joins fight for Europe

Britain's main opposition leader, the Labour Party's Jeremy Corbyn, made a major intervention in the referendum debate Thursday when he backed Britain's membership of the European Union (EU).

One so-called "poll of polls", a compilation of about six different polls, showed 45 percent of respondents want to leave the EU, 42 percent want to stay, and the rest are still undecided.

Vote Leave seizes on another poll by ICM, published Thursday, which highlighted attitudes to immigration, firing five questions the movement says Prime Minister David Cameron must answer.

The ICM poll shows voters think the current system of free movement of people in the EU is damaging, unsafe, and puts unsustainable pressure on public services. A total of 58 percent of voters would be unhappy if current levels of EU migration continued.

Most people also think EU migration in the last decade has been bad for the National Health Service (NHS) (55 percent), for schools (58 percent) and for housing (67 percent), with 61 percent saying allowing Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey to join the EU would be bad for the UK.

On the campaign trail, Corbyn has faced criticism for seemingly taking a back seat in the national debate as voting day looms on June 23. Viewed as a long-standing Eurosceptic, Corbyn has accepted the party he now leads is officially pro-Europe.

Just hours before Corbyn addressed a meeting at the Institute of Engineering Technology in London, Tim Roache, leader of one of Britain's biggest trade unions, the GMB, was critical of the Labour party, describing Corbyn as a "half-hearted" supporter of the EU.

But Corbyn insisted Labour was getting its Remain message out as loudly as it could, adding there was an overwhelming case to remain in the EU. But he said Labour had a distinct agenda from that of the ruling Conservative government, which also backs staying in Europe.

Millions of workers in Britain had benefited from a host of rights and protections introduced under EU legislation, including giving millions of mainly women part-time workers equal rights as full-time employees.

Corbyn cited EU measures that have secured 28 days of paid leave and a limit on working hours for more than 26 million workers. He also said eight million part-time workers and a million temporary workers now shared equal rights with full time, permanent colleagues. As well, the measures have secured guaranteed maternity leave rights used by 340,000 women every year.

On immigration, Corbyn said government austerity policies since 2010 had been the cause of problems for communities with high immigration rather than the migrants themselves.

The debate Thursday also focused on winning support from 18 to 25 year olds, with the Leave campaign claiming young people would find it harder to get on the housing ladder if Britain stayed in the EU.

Leave's Liam Fox, former defense minister, issued a warning to younger voters about the impact on housing of uncontrolled EU migration, saying an influx from mainland Europe would push up rents and make it harder for many to find affordable homes.

Tim Farron, leader of the minority Liberal Democrats in the House of Commons, warned a vote to leave Europe would destroy young people's hopes of getting on the housing ladder.

Farron said: "Leaving would mean fewer jobs, higher prices, and lower pay, making deposits harder or impossible to build up. First-time buyers are better off in Europe and leaving would be a leap in the dark leaving young people worse off."

The campaign continues to throw strange bedfellows into the spotlight. Former Labour Chancellor Alistair Darling shared a Remain platform with current Conservative Chancellor George Osborne. Political hatchets, it seems, have been buried at least until June 23. Endit