Prescott in last-ditch talks to stop fire strike

John Prescott will hold confidential talks with the leader of the Fire Brigades Union today in a last-ditch attempt to avert 36 days of strikes by firefighters. The behind-the-scenes contact, partly brokered by the Trades Union Congress, will include, for the first time, negotiations about the FBU's 40 per cent pay demand.

The Deputy Prime Minister spoke to the FBU officials to arrange the meeting with Andy Gilchrist, the FBU general secretary, last night, just hours after Tony Blair made clear the Government would "do all it can" to resolve the dispute. Although both sides confirmed there was still a "huge gulf" on pay, the Government's willingness to discuss it was a significant shift.

With industrial action to begin with a 48-hour national strike starting at 9am on Tuesday, ministers also seized on speculation that the FBU's support was starting to crumble, with some stations in the North against strikes. The FBU has planned two 48-hour strikes and four eight-day stoppages, ending on 24 December.

Some FBU members are also understood to have defied their leadership by submitting evidence to the independent review into firefighters' pay and conditions.

Senior government sources said there was "movement" from the union on the issue of the review, chaired by Professor Sir George Bain.

If the FBU agrees to take part in the study, it will report much quicker than its expected mid-December deadline.

Both sides refused to give any official indication of the horse-trading taking place behind closed doors between Mr Prescott, a former union official and Andy Gilchrist, left-wing general secretary of the FBU.

Sources at the TUC said there had been a "great deal of traffic'' yesterday on the issue of the fire dispute and that John Monks, the TUC's general secretary, and his deputy, Brendan Barber, had been involved. A TUC source said: "There are clearly ministers in the Government ­ Prescott in particular ­ who would still like to find some way out of the dispute.''

Mr Blair's tone when he addressed MPs was markedly more conciliatory than in recent days. Some ministers, including Mr Prescott, were privately furious at Mr Blair's reported description of the FBU as "Scargillite".

Ministers pointed out that the union had, unlike Arthur Scargill, balloted its members, and the remarks had endangered delicate negotiations.

"No one wants a dispute. We will do all we can to avoid a dispute, which will be very damaging for obvious reasons," Mr Blair said.

But Mr Blair told Prime Minister's Question Time in the House of Commons that a 40 per cent pay rise was "simply not on" because of the damage it would do to the wider economy and knock-on effect on public sector pay.

Nick Raynsford, the minister responsible for the Fire Service, said earlier this week that it would be "quite wrong" for the Army to cross picket lines to drive fire engines, but Mr Blair made clear he would indeed consider such a move if the strike went ahead.

"There must be no question of any doctrine or ideology preventing us from protecting the public. Of course that is right. We don't rule out anything at all in the protection of the public," he said.

"We keep that judgement under constant review but we think if we were to go down the other path at this stage it would probably exacerbate the dispute, rather than resolve it."

Meanwhile Professor Bain resisted pressure to speed up his review, telling The Independent it would be possible to complete his report quickly or thoroughly, but not both.