Union members met outside MP Robert Buckland's Old Town officers to call for the government to do more to support British Airways workers.

The Unite union and BA have been at loggerheads for weeks after the airline's owner IAG said it could cut up to 12,000 jobs as a result of the pandemic. Staff were told they could be made redundant then re-hired on new contracts, according to reports.

Calling for action from government, Unite executive officer Sharon Graham said: "Boris Johnson’s words of support for BA staff and his talk of 'jobs, jobs, jobs' is empty rhetoric unless the government acts. There must be consequences for British Airways' decision to press ahead with its plans to fire and rehire its workforce in the middle of the worst health crisis in a century."

Earlier this week BA called the drop in air travel during the lockdown the biggest challenge its industry had ever faced.

Responding to a letter from Unite boss Len McCluskey warning that union members could go on strike over the jobs plan, BA told the BBC: "It is disappointing that a company doing everything it can to save jobs is being singled out by Unite for national criticism, when jobs are being lost across the country in every industry."

A spokesman added: "If staff accept the changes to the way they work or their terms and conditions, we expect to be able to save more jobs."