Sickening Royal Bank of Scotland bosses faced a nationwide chorus of disgust yesterday after announcing bonuses of over half a billion pounds - despite making losses of over £8.2 billion this year alone.

The state-owned bank has lost £46bn over the past six years but chief executive Ross McEwan brazenly defended the bonanza £576 million payout by declaring it was "only fair" on fat-cat investment bankers.

He said: "We need to pay these people fairly in the marketplace to do the job."

But Mr McEwan backtracked on his own logic as he announced in the same breath £5bn worth of wide-ranging cuts and warned that the bank's lowest-paid workers were most at risk.

"We cannot spend money as though we are in profit when we have lost £46bn in six years," he shamelessly declared.

Trade union Unite said the bank's bonus revelation was an "astonishing betrayal."

Unite national officer Rob MacGregor said: "Over 30,000 RBS workers in branches call centres and back offices have already paid too high a price for the bank's failures.

"While the bank has not announced job losses, we know that Ross McEwan the new CEO wants a radically different and smaller bank.

"Unite is demanding full details on plans to shrink the business.

"There is plenty of scope to rationalise the business and make savings without cutting staff numbers. RBS has already cut staff numbers to the bone and it is now time to focus on job security and customer service."

The news was met with widespread condemnation of the bankers' greed.

Union chiefs attacked the already wealthy individuals who it said would be receiving bonuses at the expense of the bank's balance sheet.

TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: "There would be no RBS had it not been bailed out to the tune of billions by taxpayers.

"The multimillion bonus pool at RBS would be better spent getting the bank back into good shape and repaying taxpayers, rather than on boosting the already inflated bank accounts of its senior staff.

"Hard-pressed families will understandably feel anger and resentment at yet another display of excess in the City, especially as so many of them are still struggling to make ends meet."