UNION leaders reacted with anger yesterday to the news that banking giant Lloyds is to axe another 1,300 jobs.

Ged Nichols, general secretary of the Accord union, said the jobs will go mainly in the bank’s risk and corporate divisions across the UK.

He said: “This announcement, which is the first tranche of the extra 15,000 job losses forecast in the bank’s recent strategic review, means that the bank has shed 30,000 jobs since February 2009 and the impact on employee morale is what you would expect.

“Accord has informed the company that it must do everything possible to avoid compulsory redundancies and work with us to provide support and guidance to those affected.”

David Fleming, national officer of the Unite union, said: “This latest decision is astonishing and will send ripples of shock across the entire business as it signifies the reality and misery that faces hard-working staff.

“Over 1,000 staff from the Lloyds business functions in risk, insurance, retail, wealth and international operations and corporate affairs have been informed that there will be cuts in their area.

“Unite is demanding that the Lloyds Banking Group puts to an end the widespread practice of employing agency and temporary staff while making thousands of permanent employees redundant.

“Lloyds should be redeploying and retraining its existing workforce to limit the impact caused by their restructuring plans.”

Lloyds said 1,120 of the losses were announced in the group’s strategic review in June when chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio said the state-controlled bank would shed 15,000 jobs by 2014 to save £1.5bn.

The remaining 180 are part of the group’s integration programme following the 2009 merger between Lloyds and HBOS.