“Creeping complacency” is putting offshore workers’ lives at risk, a panel of MPs warned yesterday following a slew of trade union testimony.

Backbenchers on the Commons transport committee will demand a “full, independent public inquiry” from coalition ministers today amid longstanding concerns about the safety of oil and gas workers as helicopters ferry them to and from Britain’s offshore drilling platforms.

The MPs’ plea began with an investigation in the wake of last August’s fatal Super Puma crash in the North Sea near Shetland, the fifth such ditching involving the North Sea fleet since 2009 and the second to cause deaths.