The boss of a Stanmore hotel booking company hit by redundancies has refused to confirm how many people will lose their jobs.

Employees at Expotel, based in The Broadway, fear between 80 and 100 people could be axed following a buy out this summer, but Ian Burnley, the company's new CEO, vehemently denied the claim.

He told the Harrow Times, while a number will have to go, many are being offered the chance to apply for new posts at other offices in the north of England.

He said: “We are going to expand Expotel and we expect to be able to grow the business quite significantly over the next three or four years.

“At that time I hope to be able to create large numbers of jobs.”

The company's former owners sold it in July, to investors Phoenix Equity Partners, who have also bought NIS Europe, another hotel booking agency, for a total of £38m.

Some staff have already been made redundant under restructuring designed to bring the two firms together, and Mr Burnley admitted there are not enough jobs available for all staff based in Stanmore to apply for new positions.

One employee at the firm said: “It's pretty bad. They're not giving us reasons, they are just saying they've decided to change the location.

“Our morale is very low because people don't feel they've been treated fairly.

“A lot of people have been here for 20-30 years. A few people have already gone. They were told just go get your stuff and don't come back to the building.”

Another said: “It's just not a very nice place to be in at the moment, but it happens I guess.”

Mr Burnley said the company has created between 25 and 50 jobs at its Leeds office over the last year.