Tony Blair yesterday rebuked British Airways over its high profile refusal to allow a Christian worker to wear a cross, pointedly telling the airline's chairman there were battles that were "really not worth fighting".

The prime minister was challenged at the CBI's annual conference by Martin Broughton, BA chairman, over ministerial attacks on his airline's ban on check-in staff wearing jewellery. The airline last week agreed to review its uniform policy after its battle with Nadia Eweida over her insistence on wearing a cross outside her uniform prompted a media furore.