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Shadow immigration minister Chris Bryant: "There are unscrupulous employers"
The Labour Party has become embroiled in a row with two of the UK's biggest retailers over claims they favoured Eastern European workers over Britons.
Tesco and Next reject the claims, which had been due to be made by shadow immigration minister Chris Bryant in a speech that was leaked to newspapers.
Ahead of the speech, he said he wanted to "refocus the economy" so firms did not have to "bring in workers".
Norman Rose, from The Recruitment Society, accused Labour of "jingoism".
In extracts from the speech published at the weekend, Mr Bryant claimed Tesco had moved a distribution centre to Kent where "a large percentage" of staff were "from Eastern bloc" countries.
Staff at an original site, "most of them British, were told that they could only move to the new centre if they took a cut in pay", he was reportedly due to say.
'Deeply disappointed'But the supermarket giant said it was "wrong to accuse Tesco of this", saying it did not have such a distribution centre in Kent.
"Start Quote
End Quote Next spokesmanIn fact, agency workers from Poland cost us exactly the same as local agency workers and our existing employees"
It said in a statement it worked "incredibly hard to recruit from the local area" and had just recruited 350 "local people" to its new distribution centre in Dagenham, east London.
In other extracts, Mr Bryant was reportedly expected to say: "Look at Next Plc, who last year brought 500 Polish workers to work in their South Elmsall [West Yorkshire] warehouse for their summer sale and another 300 this summer.
"They were recruited in Poland and charged £50 to find them accommodation.
"The advantage to Next? They get to avoid agency workers regulations, which apply after a candidate has been employed for over 12 weeks, so Polish temps end up considerably cheaper than the local workforce, which includes many former Next employees."
But a Next spokesman said the measure was not designed to get around the regulations, adding: "We are deeply disappointed Mr Bryant did not bother to check his facts with the company before releasing his speech.
"In fact, agency workers from Poland cost us exactly the same as local agency workers and our existing employees.
"The only reason we seek the help of people from Poland is that we simply can't recruit enough local people to satisfy these spikes in demand for temporary work."
Mr Bryant's speech later is now expected to reflect subsequent discussions with Tesco and Next, and ahead of it, he sought to clarify his intentions.
He told ITV's Daybreak that Tesco and Next were "great companies" and he had never suggested they were paying people less than the minimum wage.
But he said when Tesco moved its distribution operations from Harlow, in Essex, to Dagenham "at the end of it there was a higher percentage of people who were non-UK workers".
"If you have eight men coming from an Eastern European country, a low wage economy, to the UK, living in a house together, pretty substandard accommodation, and only working for six weeks and then going back home, then of course they undercut British people who would be able to take those jobs," he said.
'Ruthless'Robert Halfon, Conservative MP for Harlow, said many of his constituents employed at the Tesco distribution site were forced to take redundancy when operations shifted to Dagenham rather than a pay cut of up to £10,000.
He accused Tesco of being "a ruthless company" and said the Tories should be "the party of small business and fair business".
Mr Rose, executive director of industry body The Recruitment Society, told BBC Radio 5 live Labour had got it wrong.
"Start Quote
End Quote Peter Mooney Employment Law Advisory ServicesThey are entitled to recruit to fulfil a seasonal need"
"They don't have their facts correct and it's part of a current jingoism that's going around about British jobs for British workers," he said.
"Jobs are for people who are willing to take them to do whatever the company requires, and more investigation needs to be undertaken to make sure companies are not wrongly judged for taking normal commercial decisions."
Peter Mooney, head of consultancy at Employment Law Advisory Services, also told 5 live the national minimum wage and agency worker regulations applied to all EU citizens employed in the UK.
"They are entitled to recruit to fulfil a seasonal need. Where they get their workers from, as long as it's within the law, is absolutely fine."
On Friday the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) announced that it was investigating, following 60 complaints, a scheme which saw vans drive through London calling on illegal immigrants to "go home or face arrest".
A Home Office spokesman said it was in contact with the ASA and would "respond in due course".
In his speech, Mr Bryant is due to say that such "cheap and nasty gimmicks" by the government left "a nasty taste in the mouth".
Mr Bryant will also propose new powers to tackle an "epidemic" of sham marriages, and call for the Home Office to be given more information and powers to investigate suspicious marriages.
A Downing Street source said net immigration had fallen by a quarter since the general election and that Labour should apologise for having let immigration get out of control when in power.
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