ROYAL Bank of Scotland (RBS) has come under fire after announcing the closure of a further 54 Royal Bank of Scotland branches nationally with the loss of 258 jobs.

The latest wave of closures comes on top of the closure of 162 branches announced earlier this year, which resulted in 792 job losses. Worcester's RBS branch closed last Wednesday, but none of the new 54 branches announced for closure are in the county.

Last year, RBS avoided the compulsory sale of Williams & Glyn, which had been ordered by regulators as part of the bank's obligations under state aid rules following its £45 billion Government bailout at the height of the financial crisis.

An RBS spokesman said: "As we are no longer launching Williams & Glyn as a challenger bank we now have two branch networks operating in close proximity to each other - NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland. As a result we have reviewed our overall branch footprint and have made the difficult decision to close 54 Royal Bank of Scotland branches."

Rob MacGregor, of union Unite, said: "It is utterly disgusting that RBS has the audacity to announce that yet more important local bank branches will close their doors."

"This announcement heaps further misery on communities across England and Wales that have already seen the demise of local banking services as branches that were signposted by the bank earlier in 2018 as an alternative for customers whose branches were closing, now suffering a similar fate.