British union leaders will meet bosses at chocolate giant Cadbury today to ask them to reverse their decision to close a factory.

Cadbury is to axe 700 jobs at two of its factories in the UK under restructuring plans, the chocolate giant announced today.

McVitie’s and Jacob’s owner United Biscuits agreed today to a £1.6bn (€2.4bn) takeover by a consortium made up of two private equity firms.

Workers at the Cadbury World visitor centre were today staging a 24-hour strike in a dispute over pay.