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Labour Party leader Ed Miliband has urged Â鶹ԼÅÄ staff not go ahead with a planned strike next week during the Conservative Party conference.

The 48-hour strike will include the day of David Cameron's keynote speech.

But Mr Miliband said in the "interests of impartiality and fairness" the prime minister's speech should be broadcast on TV and radio.

Union members are due to strike on 5-6 October in protest against proposed cuts to the Â鶹ԼÅÄ's pension scheme.

"Whatever the rights and wrongs of the dispute, they should not be blacking out the prime minister's speech," Mr Miliband said.

"My speech was seen and heard on the Â鶹ԼÅÄ and in the interests of impartiality and fairness, so the prime minister's should be."

Trade union Bectu has expressed its disappointment at Mr Miliband's comments saying: "As a Labour Party affiliate, Bectu places on record its dissatisfaction with Ed Miliband's statement.

"The leader's intervention is not helpful and is dismissive of our actions as a responsible trade union which has been negotiating with the employer on this issue for three long months."

Mr Miliband's call comes a day after several Â鶹ԼÅÄ news presenters and journalists wrote a letter to the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), saying they had "serious concerns" about the industrial action.

Newsnight presenters Jeremy Paxman and Emily Maitlis were among the 36 signatories who claimed that the strike risked "looking unduly partisan".

A second 48-hour strike is planned for 19 October, which would hit Â鶹ԼÅÄ coverage of chancellor George Osborne's spending review announcement.