Disgraceful scenes of animal cruelty filmed on a Bedfordshire farm have exposed the "false reassurance" created by Britain's biggest welfare labelling scheme, campaigning MEP John  Flack said today.

He spoke out after The Times exposed what he called "industrial-scale" abuse on a farm in his constituency - despite it being certified by the Red Tractor scheme.

The scheme - set up by the National Farmers Union and major retailers - claims to offer a "cast iron guarantee" of good animal welfare.

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Larger pigs at the farm in Bedfordshire were crammed into pens where they were forced to lie on top of each other

Footage secretly filmed by animal welfare campaigners at Rosebury Farm in Dunstable shows dead piglets littering the floor of a birthing shed and live adult pigs crammed on top on one another into tiny pens. Pigs are repeatedly jabbed with an electric prod and a worker is seen swinging piglets by their back legs to smash their heads against a wall.

Mr Flack, Conservative MEP for the East of England (which includes Dunstable), said: "This is industrial-scale cruelty that shames our region. It blows apart the false reassurance peddled by the Red Tractor scheme, which I see as a cosy arrangement between farmers and supermarkets to make soothing but meaningless animal welfare claims.

"The scheme claims to offer a rigorous standards check, but only one in a thousand inspections is unannounced. The rest get plenty of warning to straighten up their act. The charity Compassion in World Farming quite rightly insists that only spot checks are effective."

"There is clear evidence here of a range of abuses including casual use of an electric prod which is illegal - so I hope and expect that those responsible will be prosecuted with the full force of the law."

Mr Flack, a passionate campaigner against animal cruelty, is putting finishing touches to a book due to be published in October which highlights a range of disturbing welfare issues. One hard-hitting section pours scorn on Britain's "inadequate, competing and confusing" array of food-labelling regimes.

Mr Flack said: "Accurate and meaningful labelling is essential to give consumers an informed choice about the welfare standards employed in producing their food. Yet they are faced with a bamboozling range of labels and claims, from Assured Food Standard, Pasture Promise and Outdoor Bred to Organic and RSPCA Assured.

"RSPCA assured, for example, does mean a better standard of welfare than the legal minimum, but animals could still be confined indoors for their entire lives. How many of us know that?

"The whole system needs starting again from scratch to give shoppers clear, accurate and meaningful welfare guarantees where they are warranted."