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BMW's factories at Swindon and Hams Hall near Birmingham, which supply parts to Cowley, will not be affected by the cuts, the company said.

The job cuts at BMW follow 220 jobs cut last week by Bentley, the luxury carmaker, around 10 per cent of its workforce. Ford axed 850 jobs earlier this month. Last month Nissan cut 1,200 jobs in Britain and Jaguar Land Rover cut 450.

Toyota and Vauxhall, which is owned by General Motors, are also considering reducing their British workforces and Honda enforced a four-month lay-off at its Swindon plant.

Derek Simpson, joint leader of Unite, said the job losses showed how deeply the recession was now affecting the motor industry, given that BMW was a "hugely profitable" firm and Cowley was an efficient factory.

He said: "There is a huge onus on the Government to take drastic action to support the motor industry and to encourage people to buy cars. The banks will also have to start making credit available again or this is going to lead to disaster."

Malcolm Harbour, a Conservative MEP for the West Midlands and a former director of the Rover car company, said: "The British Government is not tackling the underlying cause of manufacturers’ woes: the lack of demand for new vehicles.

"Getting loans to car and commercial vehicle customers now is essential, but all the Government has done so far is set up a committee. The Government should be seeking to make the vehicles already on the forecourts more attractive to hesitant consumers."

In January, Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, outlined a £2.3 billion aid plan for the motor industry that will guarantee loans to car and components companies.

Gordon Brown’s spokesman said that the job losses at Cowley were very disappointing news. "All I can say really is the Government is doing and will do all that we can to help those affected.”

The Mini celebrates its 50th anniversary in August of this year. Cowley was one of the factories that produced the original 848cc model designed by Sir Alec Issigonis.

After production of the old design finally ceased in 2000 it was replaced by a new, more powerful version with a 1.4 litre engine which has also proved hugely successful, especially abroad, with 80 per cent of the factory’s output sold for export. But worldwide sales were down by 35 per cent last month and by a similar amount in the UK, in line with a slump which hit all car manufacturers.

Cowley started building the new Mini in 2001 and the factory has a capacity to produce 260,000 models a year.

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