Deliveries of new Ford cars to showrooms will be delayed because of a strike over pay and jobs, union leaders have warned.

Members of the Transport and General Workers’ Union at Ansa Logistics, which delivers Ford cars across the UK, started two weeks of industrial action which will hit sites in Southampton, Dagenham and Liverpool.

About 350 drivers, fitters and support staff will be involved in the action, which the union said was in protest at wage cuts and compulsory redundancies.

Union official Ron Webb said deliveries would be “seriously affected” within days.