Activists whose union was derecognised after criticising Yorkshire ambulance bosses’ plans to bring in poorly qualified staff will demonstrate outside Parliament today.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) derecognised Unite in February 2013 when union

reps blew the whistle on plans to replace highly qualified paramedics with “emergency care assistants.”

Most of the region’s ambulance workers are members of public service union Unison.

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: “Yorkshire Ambulance Service must ensure that no practice could be said to be gambling with patients’ lives. Unite is investigating a large number of complaints by patients.

“Unite is also investigating allegations of staff being pressured into manipulating call-out data to meet targets.

“It is a disgrace that staff who have blown the whistle on unsafe practices feel victimised by a failure to allow them full union representation.”