Marks and Spencer is expected to announce within the next two hours which 27 of its stores face closure.

The high street giant released news this morning that it planned to close 25 of its smaller Simply Food stores as well as two of its larger branches.

Cutbacks across the company will result in the loss of more than 1,200 jobs.

The job cuts include 450 head office employees, about 15 percent of that work force.

Another 780 staff in 25 "underperforming" food-only shops and two of the retailer's smaller department stores will also face redundancies.