A LOVE Island star has slammed a Tory MP over suggestions mass redundancies by British Airways were "a private matter between company and employees".

Former BA stewardess Amy Hart, from Worthing, labelled the move by her ex-employer to cut 12,000 jobs amid plummeting travel demand as "opportunistic" and "greedy."

The 27-year-old quit her job with BA to join the cast for the 2019 edition of the hit TV show.

But she remains a vocal supporter of her former colleagues, and has now stepped in to support them.

The reality star condemned comments by Tory MP and Aviation Minister Kelly Tolhurst with a tweet to her 96,700 Twitter followers accompanied by the hashtag "babetryal."

She posted: "I know you're very busy but please do your research into the situation in aviation.

"It's not 'a private matter between company and employees', it's opportunistic, greedy and should not be allowed.

"People will lose their homes and kids won't be fed."

The former cabin manager said: "It's an all-encompassing lifestyle and people have sacrificed so much over the years because they love the job.

"So the fact that they have been stabbed in the back in this way in such an uncertain time is really disgusting."

Her criticism comes after BA's parent company, IAG, said it needed to put in place a "restructuring and redundancy programme" until demand for travel returns.

BA cabin crew said they felt betrayed and that they were being treated as "sacrificial lambs" over plans to cut jobs and introduce contractual changes such as lower wages for remaining staff.

Many staff say they are suffering from mental health problems and fear they may lose their homes.

Yesterday the chairman of the House of Commons Transport Committee Huw Merriman accused the airline of taking advantage of the crisis to slash terms and conditions.

He told the House: "It is ethically outrageous that our national flag carrier is doing this at a time when the nation is at its weakest and when we expect the country to do its bit."

The airline defended its move by arguing that it is taking action now to protect as many jobs as possible in the future.

Mr Merriman urged the government to request an urgent review into reallocating lucrative landing slots at airports and to change the job retention scheme to stop employers exploiting it to place employees on redundancy notice.

But Ms Tolhurst, a transport minister whose remit covers aviation, said the government was "legally prevented from intervening" in slots allocation.

She added: "However, we want airport landing and take-off slots to be used as effectively as possible," and declared she would be looking into the matter further.

The Tory MP for Rochester and Strood in Kent expressed sympathy towards those workers threatened with redundancy, saying: "I understand the impact that any reduction in jobs on stress will have.

"I certainly would expect employers not to use the pandemic as a chance to slash terms and conditions as I think most people would."

She went on: "I think terms and conditions are usually a matter for employees and employers but employees obviously have recourse to a number of options for support in cases this is happening."

The Aviation Minister added she would expect employers to treat their workers with the "social responsibility" you would expect them to have.

"I will be doing everything I can in my power to ensure that is understood by those organisations."

The formerly government-owned airline said it called on Unite and GHM to discuss proposals and added that its pilot union, BALPA, was doing the same.

In a statement, BA said: "We are acting now to protect as many jobs as possible.

"The airline industry is facing the deepest structural change in its history, as well as facing a severely weakened global economy.

"Working together we can protect more jobs as we prepare for a new future."