THOUSANDS of building workers have been injured and almost 200 killed on construction sites while the Tory government has slashed safety spending by £100 million, it was revealed today.

Since 2013, 195 workers have been killed on site, general union GMB told a conference in Belfast.

Construction workers go to work “not knowing if they are going to make it through the day unharmed — or even alive,” the union’s report found. Causes of death included falls, electrocution, explosions, drowning and asphyxiation.

More than 26,000 people have suffered injuries, including fractures, amputations and serious burns, since 2013.

Yet by next year, a decade of Conservative-led governments will have cut funding for the Health & Safety Executive by £100m.

GMB national secretary Jude Brimble said: “Construction work is highly skilled and can be dangerous, but these figures are absolutely unacceptable.

“That’s why we will be discussing our Building for Britain pledge at GMB’s manufacturing conference today: to tackle these issues and make construction industry and safer, more inclusive place to work.”

The report comes ahead of the launch a new Building for Britain charter by GMB aimed at tackling health and safety failings and other issues in the construction industry.

George Tapp, a site electrician who was blacklisted for his trade union and health and safety work in the north-west of England, spoke of his experiences of contractors and subcontractors taking dangerous shortcuts to speed up work.

He told the Star that the slashing of health and safety inspections was having an effect at site level.

Mr Tapp said: “It is scandalous. These subcontractors don’t have health and safety officers. All they want to do is go in, do the job, get the money and get out. They have no concern for health and safety.

“There was even an incident on a Manchester site where a health and safety inspector was killed when a building fell on him.”