Drivers at Hull Trains are to stage a series of strikes in a dispute over the sacking of a colleague.

Members of Aslef will walk out on every Friday between March 7 and April 25 and every Saturday between March 8 and April 26, after previously voting overwhelmingly to take industrial action.

The union said the driver had been unfairly dismissed after raising a safety concern, which the company denies.

Mick Whelan, Aslef's general secretary, said: "The company's failure to act responsibly has impacts not just for rail workers and passengers at Hull Trains but right across the wider rail industry.

"We have a culture on the railway designed to keep everyone safe.

"Anyone who works on the railway should be able to report a safety concern without fearing they will be penalised, punished, or lose their livelihood."

Nigel Roebuck, Aslef's organiser in the north-east of England, said: "The company has got this completely wrong.

"It has ridden roughshod over the rule book, and all our agreements, and needs now to have a sensible rethink and do the right thing."