URGENT action is needed to prevent car giant Honda abandoning Swindon, a trade union leader has warned.

Derek Simpson, general secretary of Amicus, told MPs yesterday that Britain's flexible employment laws are making all car manufacturing jobs vulnerable to plants with cheaper labour in eastern Europe.

British jobs are the first to go because countries like France and Germany have more laws to protect their workers, he argued.

He made his comments to the Commons trade and industry committee.

MG Rover went to the wall last April with the loss of 6,000 jobs. Since then, there have been 2,300 job losses at Peugeot's Ryton plant in Coventry and 900 jobs lost at Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port plant.

Mr Simpson praised Japanese carmakers Nissan, Honda and Toyota for investing in their British car plants and increasing production.

But after the meeting, he said: "I am pretty sure that Japanese car companies will want the advantage of cheap labour that other car companies get."

A Honda spokeswoman said: "Honda is a global company operating 120 manufacturing facilities in 29 countries employing just under 132,000. Honda of the UK Manufacturing in Swindon is the centre of Honda's European car manufacturing operation, producing cars principally for the European market but, also, as part of Honda's global manufacturing network, we are exporting cars to many other regions.

"Honda has invested £1.33bn in its car manufacturing operation in Swindon, employing 4,000 associates and producing 885 cars a day."