Barclays to cut 1,000 UK retail banking jobs

British bank Barclays Plc is to cut about 1,000 UK jobs as it stops offering financial planning advice in its branches.

The bank said on Wednesday it was consulting with the Unite trade union about ending the service, which is due to occur on February 18 and affect about 1,000 staff across Britain.

The bank plans to focus its investment service offering online. It said providing advice through branches was becoming less commercially viable, and that decline was likely to continue.

Rob MacGregor, Unite national officer, said the bank's management should hang their heads in shame at the cuts.

This news once again confirms that contrary to what the Conservative government claims the private sector will not fill the gap left by the slashing of jobs in our public services, MacGregor said in a statement.

(Reporting by Steve Slater; Editing by Louise Heavens)