The ad first aired on Monday night showing Gary Lineker having wet concrete poured on him from a great height as he refused to share his crisps.

The advert coincided with the opening of the inquest into the death of Rene Tkacik who was killed on 7th March 2014 on Crossrail when concrete fell on him.

The first day of the inquest heard how Tkacik was crushed to death by nearly a tonne of wet concrete on the Holborn tunnel site last March

Steve Murphy, General Secretary of UCATT, said: “There is nothing amusing about accidents on construction sites and the timing of the advert could not have been worse.”

A Walkers spokesperson said: “As soon as we were made aware of this issue we immediately took the decision to stop running this advert. We did not set out to cause offence and sincerely apologise for any upset that may have been caused.”