British Gas 'poised to axe jobs in Leeds'

The GMB said it had seen internal company correspondence detailing cuts of 25% in non-customer facing staff as well as losses in other parts of the business.

Alongside Leeds, the union has claimed that job losses will impact on sites in Stockport, Edinburgh, Addingstone near Glasgow, Leicester, Cardiff, Oldbury in the West Midlands and Southampton.

National officer Gary Smith said: "GMB has good reason to believe that British Gas is planning to axe up to 5,000 jobs in its operations across the UK. Union members believe the cuts being planned are massive."

The union said recently-announced restructuring at British Gas was expected to lead to job cuts, but not on such a scale.

Officials said they had been trying to get a "straight response" from the company about its future plans.

Mr Smith added: "The staff are working flat out in what looks like the busiest period the company has ever had. Contact centres have been open until 4am in the morning. Engineers and the staff have been performing heroics to try and keep customers warm. Our fear is that once the busy period is over the axe will fall."