Union 'turning fire strike into political battle' warns Prescott

John Prescott made a furious attack on the leader of the Fire Brigades Union yesterday, accusing him of trying to turn the fire dispute into an ideological battle over the future of Labour as relations between the party and the unions sank to a new low.

Senior trade unionists turned their ire on the Government, accusing ministers of wrecking the chance of a settlement to the bitter dispute.

But ministers dug in for a long haul and a political dispute as they prepared to increase calls for changes in working practices. A report on the performance of military firefighters, to be published today by Nick Raynsford, the Local Government minister, will show that military fire crews exceeded government targets. The report will also give examples of how joint control room working and changed shift patterns could improve services.

A Downing Street official said: "The FBU has given us an insight into their working practices."

Senior FBU members will meet today to decide whether to sanction fresh strikes early next year. Mr Raynsford has warned that the dispute could go on for months.

The FBU is expected to confirm the next eight-day strike will start on Wednesday, followed by a further eight-day walk-out from 16 December, until Christmas Eve. Adam Ingram, the Armed Forces minister, warned that Christmas leave had been cancelled for some troops in readiness for further strike action.

The angry rhetoric surrounding the dispute increased when Mr Prescott rounded on Andy Gilchrist, after the FBU general secretary called for a return to "real Labour" and attacked the Government's policy over Iraq in a speech to Manchester firefighters on Saturday.

Mr Gilchrist told the meeting that he was "quite prepared to work to replace New Labour with what I'm prepared to call real Labour." But the Deputy Prime Minister countered: "The Government has made clear our position that any extra pay must be paid for by modernisation and the FBU should engage on the modernisation agenda. Instead, Mr Gilchrist revealed a different agenda.

"The public, including many firefighters and their families, will be in no doubt that it is not acceptable for Mr Gilchrist to try to turn an industrial dispute into a political one. This dispute is about pay and conditions and the kind of modern fire service the country needs. It is not about government policy on Iraq or the future direction of the Labour Party.

"These highly politicised comments do nobody any good at this time and Mr Gilchrist should try to focus on the real issues in hand. That is what his members would expect him to do."

John Edmonds, the general secretary of the large GMB union, responded: "It's a bit rich of ministers to accuse Andy Gilchrist of politicising this dispute. Remember that it was no one less than the Prime Minister himself who branded the FBU Scargillites. It has been clear from the beginning that there are some people in Downing Street who want to use this crisis as a means of undermining the trade unions."

Further trouble for the Government came when senior union leaders attacked its rejection of a 16 per cent pay deal agreed between the FBU and local authority negotiators 10 days ago. Senior TUC figures were said to have reacted with exasperation and a sense of incredulity.

Bill Morris, the general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union, told GMTV that a government "sabotage squad" was trying to prolong the dispute. "It's dangerous and I think it's irresponsible because it seems as if there's a strategy to starve the firefighters back to work and that will not work," he said.

Nigel de Gruchy, the TUC president and former teachers' leader, attacked Mr Prescott for vetoing the 16 per cent pay deal, which could have led to a negotiated settlement. "The far bigger question is why the Government wrecked the agreement that did set forward the possibility for very constructive talks to take place," he said.

Today's 15-page report, compiled by staff at the Government's Cobra briefing room, will show that military firefighters have exceeded their brief to answer life-threatening and potentially life-threatening emergency calls. Instead, all calls deemed to require a fire engine have been answered, with joint control rooms dispatching police rather than a full fire crew to many minor incidents.