THOUSANDS of Asda staff are “struggling with wages while the supermarket’s owners are buying private jets,” GMB charged yesterday.

The warning came as the union opened a four-week ballot of its members at the retail chain, asking them whether to accept what it said is “essentially a zero per cent pay offer.”

GMB said that Asda was “once again the worst paying of the ‘big four’ supermarkets” and accused bosses of refusing to boost wages.