Emma Thompson has joined the fight to keep Burberry's Welsh factory open.

Staff at the plant, in Rhondda, has already received backing from Welsh actors actors Rhys Ifans and Ioan Gruffudd, as well as opera singer Bryn Terfel.

Bosses announced last year that they were consulting on closing the site, in a move which would threaten 300 jobs, because it is not "commercially viable".

The double-Oscar winning actress said moving production abroad, as has been suggested, would threaten the fashion firm's brand.

She declared: "At a time when it behoves all businesses to set their ethics in order and put honourable practice above profit, I call upon Burberry to reconsider their decision to move out of the Rhondda valley.

"When an item that is so clearly branded as British (to the core) is ''Made in China', I'm afraid that I often put that article straight back, suspecting corporate greed and unacceptably low wage packets for the producers of that article."

She continued: "Burberry should not make this move - it will brand itself as greedy, unethical and - perhaps most importantly for the profile of the company - inauthentic."

Michael Mahoney, the company's secretary, insisted that in recent years the UK workforce had actually grown. "This is due to the success of the business and that we manage the business to ensure continued long term success," he told the BBC. "The issue is making sure we make every part of the business as effective as possible."