A leading QC has said his colleagues are ready strike unless the coalition calls off its drastic cuts to legal aid.

The usually conservative Criminal Bar Association aired the prospect of industrial action on Saturday following a protest at Lincoln's Inn - the London house at which barristers across England and Wales receive their licence to practice.

Association chairman Nigel Lithman QC said his union was prepared to escalate to a full walkout by January next year if their warnings went unheeded.

He said: "If the rally doesn't work, then more drastic action has to be taken. The criminal bar is not prepared to work in the face of these cuts."

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling's cuts aim to cull £220 million a year from the government's legal aid budget.

But critics have warned his proposals would cut off up to three-quarters of all cases currently qualifying for legal aid.

Those locked out include people appealing benefit sanctions and points of education law, consumer protection and clinical negligence.

Assistance with employment law will only cover discrimination lawsuits. In family law only cases involving domestic violence will qualify. In housing only homelessness or health issues are applicable and in immigration only detainees and asylum-seekers will receive aid.

Even if covered, claimants must have a disposable income of less than £315 a month and less than £1,000 in assets to receive full funding.

Benefit claimants will no longer be automatically eligible and pensioners will have to chip in from their own savings.

The legal aid budget has already shrunk by 40 per cent since 1997, with Mr Lithman saying yesterday that barristers were "walking away from the profession."

He added: "The most serious cases are collapsing. Barristers are going to court, telling the judge that the government has changed the terms of their contract.

"This is the most immediate problem the bar and the government faces - how they manage to arrange representation of those people whose barrister's position has been made untenable by the government."

A Ministry of Justice spokesman defended the cuts, saying Britain had "one of the most expensive legal aid systems in the world."

"Just like many hard-pressed families and businesses, we have no choice but to make savings."