31 people died as the fire swept through King's Cross station

The regulations lay out minimum staffing levels and other safety standards for sub-surface stations.

They were introduced in 1989 as a result of the 1987 Kings Cross fire.

The government's move to scrap the regulations was opposed by the House of Commons' Regulatory Reform Committee and the union called it "reckless".

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: "It is disturbing that the government has told the committee that the existing regulations are 'highly prescriptive', for that is exactly what they need to be."

Mr Crow said the Fennell report into the Kings Cross fire, in which 31 people died, found that the prescribed minimum standards were necessary.

"It would be an act of folly and recklessness for the government to ignore the Regulatory Reform Committee's recommendation," he said.