The prime minister should reconsider the appointment of Esther McVey as work and pensions secretary, the GMB has said.

The cabinet position gives McVey ultimate responsibility for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and work and health.

But GMB says when McVey was the employment minister in charge of HSE in 2013, she was ‘unceremoniously stripped’ of this responsibility after it emerged she had been the director of a now-defunct demolition firm run by her father, JG McVey and Co, which was served with two prohibition notices for criminal health and safety breaches.

The GMB said the “totally inappropriate” appointment of McVey called the prime minister’s judgment into question.

GMB national safety officer Dan Shears said: “It has already been shown beyond question that Esther McVey is a deeply unsuitable person to be responsible for the health and safety of UK workers. She was the director of a business that put workers at serious risk to the point that the work had to be immediately prohibited. At best she’ll be oblivious to the human toll caused by health and safety failings – at worst her cavalier attitude risks endangering workers.”

He added: “It beggars belief that the prime minister deemed it fit to hand Esther McVey a brief she had previously been unceremoniously stripped of in such murky and troubling circumstances. This totally inappropriate appointment raises new and serious questions about Theresa May’s judgment in vetting appointments.”

Jon Trickett, the shadow cabinet office minister, has this week written to the prime minister expressing concerns about McVey’s promotion because of her link to workplace safety crimes.