MORE than 1,700 jobs in the North-East face the axe if the Government blocks the merger of two mail order firms, it was claimed yesterday.

Trade unions have called for March UK (Littlewoods) to be given the go-ahead to buy GUS Home Shopping, including the former Kay's Catalogue empire, which became Reality.

They have lobbied MPs at the House of Commons in a bid to persuade Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt to allow the proposed deal to go through.

Littlewoods employs 1,492 people at one of its two main customer service centres, in south Sunderland.

In addition, 275 people work within the company's distribution depots in Sunderland, Middlesborough and Stockton.

The two businesses want to merge to put them in a better position to fight off rising competition from the Internet and new catalogue rivals, such as Next.

But the £590m deal was put on hold after the Office of Fair Trading referred it to the Competition Commission. A decision is expected by December 23.

Ms Hewitt has warned of a "substantial lessening of competition" in mail order shopping if the merger went ahead.

But Usdaw, the shop workers' union, has warned that up 19,000 jobs across the country could be lost if the merger is blocked - including 3,988 in Merseyside and Cheshire.

Sir Bill Connor, Usdaw's general secretary, said the two companies would struggle to survive if they were forced to take on their new rivals alone.

He said: "It seems ludicrous that the Competition Commission is even considering turning down the merger.

"These two major companies are seeking to merge to become as efficient as possible in order to continue to compete in a tough environment and to protect the thousands of jobs that are at stake.

"Many of these jobs are in communities which are reliant on the wide range of employment in home shopping and will be devastated by the closure of these sites."

About a dozen MPs met at Westminster last week to draw up a strategy for lobbying Ms Hewitt, who will make the final decision on the commission's recommendation.

They said increased use of the Internet, the easy availability of credit and a trend for High Street shops to launch their own catalogues have all raised the threat.