A Scots lawyer has said it would be a “travesty” for Scots workers’ rights if the UK left the EU.

Patrick McGuire, a solicitor advocate at Thompsons Solicitors, warned employment laws protecting workers’ health and safety would be reduced to the bare minimum in the event of Brexit.

Mr McGuire said changes favouring workers all stem from the EU laws.

He said: “Every example and instance of legislation and rules changes that have enhanced workers’ rights have been directly because of laws, directives, rules and treaties that have come from Europe.

“The issue touches on the lives of every single working person in the UK; people who go to do a day’s work and return in the same physical and mental condition. If they are removed, significantly more people will be injured and maimed and that would tear apart families and communities.”

He added: “If the UK were to exit the EU it would be a travesty for workers’ rights. It would unleash a Tory government that has shown a religious dedication towards destroying individual, collective and trade union rights.

“It will mean eventually that there will be no industry or employee safe from the vagaries of bad employers. No one will be immune. People will be killed, injured and mistreated in their work.

“It’s crucial that issues like this have a light shone upon them. Personality politics is being played out at the expense of every working person.”

However, Labour’s Nigel Griffiths MP, head of the party’s Leave campaign, said Mr McGuire was “scaremongering” and that Brexit would result in the opposite outcome for employees.

He said: “It is clear the real threat to drive down workers’ rights comes from a rightwing-dominated EU. Equal pay was campaigned for by Barbara Castle in a Labour Cabinet long before we joined the then EEC. A Labour government delivered this, not Brussels.”

Stephen Boyd, assistant secretary of the STUC, said: “The case for Brexit is often framed around getting rid of Brussels ‘redtape’. Let’s be clear – in this context ‘redtape’ is a brazen proxy for important legislation protecting the interests of workers, consumers and the environment.”