CAMPAIGNERS called for Virgin Atlantic to be nationalised today after billionaire owner Sir Richard Branson warned that the airline will collapse due to the Covid-19 crisis unless it receives government support.

We Own It director Cat Hobbs criticised the tax exile for asking for a loan of up to £500 million — Virgin Trains received a £2 billion bailout for the East Coast line in 2018 and Virgin Care sued the NHS in 2017.

She said: “We call on the government to take a 51 per cent stake in the company and use it to save jobs and tackle the climate crisis, reducing the damage done by aviation.”

Mr Branson owns 51 per cent of Virgin Atlantic, while the remaining 49 per cent is held by US airline Delta.

He is Britain’s seventh-richest person, with a fortune of about £4.7bn, and has not paid tax in this country since moving to the tax-haven British Virgin Islands 14 years ago.

Jeremy Corbyn’s former senior policy adviser Andrew Fisher said: “Both Poland and Denmark have said their bailouts will only apply to companies that pay their taxes in those countries and not in tax havens.

“The quid pro quo for Branson should be: repay what you’ve dodged, then you’re eligible; or just nationalise.”

After the government rejected Mr Branson’s first request for support, he made a fresh plea today, saying that he would put his private Caribbean island, Necker Island, up as collateral.

In an open letter to Virgin Group employees, he wrote that he “needs government support” to keep the company going after airlines around the world grounded most of their planes.

Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell criticised billionaires today for “milking the system” during the pandemic.

Earlier this month, EasyJet founder and shareholder Stelios Haji-Ioannou secured a £600m loan from the Treasury and Bank of England’s emergency coronavirus fund, having claimed that, without it, the airline would run out of cash by the end of the year.

Earlier this month, Virgin Atlantic called on the government to offer Britain’s airline industry emergency credit facilities worth up to £7.5bn.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has said that he will not create a specific support package for the sector, but that the government is prepared to negotiate with individual firms once they have “exhausted other options” such as raising cash from existing investors.