Scottish National Party leader at Westminster Ian Blackford asked May to tell RBS Chief Executive Ross McEwan not to carry through his plan to close 259 branches of the RBS and NatWest.

"The decision to open and close branches is a commercial decision taken by the banks without intervention from the government," May said in parliament on Wednesday.

"But we do recognise the impact this has on communities and the Secretary of State for Scotland has raised concerns .... with RBS."

(Writing by Alistair Smout; editing by Stephen Addison)