A man who suffers from colour blindness said he was unfairly refused a job due to his condition.

Steven Rymer, from Gravesend, had reached the final medical stage of interviews for a job in security at Heathrow Airport.

He has colour blindness which stop him seeing shades of red and green, but wears special glasses which he says enable him to see with regular vision.

One of the final tests for the role was for colour blindness, and the 52-year-old was told he would have to remove his glasses.

As he is colour blind without them, Steven failed the test and lost out on the job.

He said: "I'm infuriated. I passed all the tests, the security interview and the medical tests.

"I was not fit for the colour blind test without my glasses, of course, but I wasn't allowed to wear them.

"At home, I even redid the test online with my glasses on to prove to myself I wasn't just making a fuss, and I passed it. My vision is completely normal with them on."

Steven, who worked at the airport 20 years ago as a detection officer, spoke to the company that did the test and was told it is their policy.

A Heathrow spokesman said: “Due to the nature of the role, it is a pre-requisite that candidates applying to be a security officer have full colour vision, and this is made clear in the job application.

"If a candidate is unable to apply for a certain role, then our team are always happy to discuss alternative vacancies across a wide range of employers at the airport.”

Heathrow has a dedicated service called the Heathrow Skills and Employment Academy which is designed to help connect job-seekers to the right role at the airport.

All UK airports carry out their assessments in line with CAA guidance, and cannot deviate from this.

The CAA suggested the specialist specs were likely not allowed as there is no guarantee that glasses for correcting colour-blindness are effective.

Colour blindness affects around one in 12 men and one in 200 women and is usually genetic, although can be caused by other conditions such as diabetes.

There are different types of colour blindness and in extremely rare cases people are unable to see any colour at all, but most colour blind people are unable to fully ‘see’ red, green or blue light. In Steven's case, he has ‘red/green colour blindness’.

Steven said other applicants were able to wear glasses for long or short-sighted vision during the tests.

The former security supervisor at the Victoria and Albert Museum, said: "I asked why people with normal spectacles could keep their glasses on for the tests, and I was told it's 'just different' for me.

"If you need spectacles to correct your vision, you can have those. People who are deaf can wear hearing aids. But although my glasses correct my vision, I was not allowed to wear them.

"People think colour blindness is just seeing in black and white but it's not."

Steven, who has been a stay-at-home dad for the past two years but is now looking to return to work, had not mentioned his condition at previous stages of the job application process because, he said: "I didn't think I needed to say it, because I have the glasses to correct my vision."

He continued: "I spent seven weeks going through the procedures to get to that stage. I wasted money and fuel to travel there and back for interviews and tests.

"If the outcome was just that I didn't get the job, that's fair enough, but this is discrimination."