Firefighters are to strike on New Year’s Eve and launch a ban on overtime in an escalation of their long-running dispute with the Government over pensions.

Members of the Fire Brigades Union in England and Wales will walk out for six hours from 6.30pm on December 31 and for two hours from 6.30am on January 3.

Between 7pm on December 27 and 7pm on December 29, all firefighters in the union across England, Wales and Scotland will refuse to work voluntary overtime.

They are taking the industrial action having been involved in a bitter row with the Government over their retirement age and pensions.

Most firefighters, who take home about £1,650 a month, already pay £320 or more a month into their pensions, and from next April this would rise for the third year in a row to more than £340 a month (£4,000 a year), with many facing a fourth consecutive rise of 2.2% per cent in 2015, said the FBU.

Fire minister Brandon Lewis said: “I would like to reassure the public that there are robust contingency arrangements in place.”