FIREFIGHTERS may strike if Rachel Reeves fails to provide extra funding for the service, the Fire Brigades Union has warned.

General secretary Matt Wrack has written to the Chancellor warning that her Budget must “begin to make up for the decade and a half of constant cuts to services and wages that have left many firefighters and other workers struggling to make ends meet.”

He called for a “generous funding settlement which allows fire service employers to make a decent pay offer” to firefighters and to ensure that services are fully equipped to protect the public.