Bus drivers in London have backed industrial action in a dispute over pay, raising the threat of strikes in the new year.

Unite said its members in the capital's 18 bus operators had supported walkouts by 85 per cent, and action short of a strike by 9-1.

The union is campaigning for a single, London-wide agreement over pay, terms and conditions, saying wages vary by £3 an hour, from £9.30 to £12.34.

Pay is negotiated on a company by company basis, leading to disparities between the wages of drivers on the same routes, said the union.

Wayne King, Unite's London regional officer, said: "This overwhelming vote in favour of strike action across London's buses should be a wake-up call to the capital's bus operators who continue to defend pay inequality.

"Bus workers who keep our capital running 24 hours a day, seven days a week have had enough of the growing pay disparities and the growing resentment it breeds across the industry.

"Rather than one set of negotiations covering all of London's bus drivers, we have 18. It is simply not fair to have drivers doing the same work, driving the same routes at the same time of day, but being paid different rates.

"London's bus operators need to enter into meaningful talks aimed at ending pay inequality and establishing a collective forum that covers bus workers' pay terms and conditions in London. Otherwise their continued refusal risks the disruption of a London-wide bus strike in the new year."

Unite represents more than 27,000 bus workers at Arriva North, Arriva South, Selkent, London General, Metroline, Metroline West, Metrobus, CT Plus, London United, Abellio South, Abellio West, London Sovereign, Stagecoach, Blue Triangle, Northumberland Park, Tower Transit, Docklands and London Central.