Mayor of London Boris Johnson and five other Tory MPs have added their support to striking journalists in South London after signing a parliamentary early day motion on the issue.

Former Daily Telegraph journalist Boris, left, who represents Uxbridge and Ruislip South in parliament alongside his mayoral responsibilities, is one of six MPs to have signed the motion.

It was tabled by Tania Mathis, Tory MP for Twickenham, one of the areas affected by the strike, and calls on Newsquest to “review urgently its plans for job losses” in the capital.

Fellow Tory MPs Peter Bottomley (Worthing West), Zac Goldsmith (Richmond Park), Chris Philp (Croydon South) and Paul Scully (Sutton and Cheam) have also signed the motion.

National Union of Journalists members from the eight-edition South London Guardian series, Surrey Comet and the Richmond & Twickenham Times are among those now six days into their 12-day walkout over a proposed cost-cutting drive, which will see many senior roles cut and 16 weeklies placed under a single group managing editor.

Colleagues at their sister News Shopper series, in South-East London, staged a walkout on Monday and Tuesday.

The motion , which can be read in full here, states concern at “the impact that these job losses could have on the quality of local journalism”.

It also “regrets that many local journalists have decided to go on strike over the last fortnight; and calls on Newsquest to review urgently its plans for job losses in South London.”

Newsquest has yet to respond to HTFP’s request for a comment on the motion.