BUS workers in Somerset and Cornwall have launched 48 hours of strike action over pay.

More than 300 members of the transport union RMT employed by First South West were due to walk out at depots in Penzance and Camborne in Cornwall and Taunton in Somerset this morning.

RMT said the operator had “failed to put forward acceptable offers to bus workers” despite First Group announcing pre-tax profits of £139 million, an increase of 33 per cent.