BURNLEY MP Peter Pike has backed firefighters from across East Lancashire fighting for improved pay.

Mr Pike met firefighters at Burnley Fire Station and now says he will write to Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott to urge him to review the four per cent increase offer currently on the table.

Fire crews could go out on strike if attempts to resolve a pay dispute fail. A ballot has been running for the past three months and the result is expected on Friday.

Mr Pike said: "We had a very full and frank discussion at the meeting and having listened to the firefighters' case I do not feel that a four per cent increase on a salary of £21,531 is a fair offer or fair salary and I will be writing to the Deputy Prime Minister urging a rethink.

"The basic pay, when qualified, is for a 42-hour week and there is no extra payment for weekend or shift working."

In the past months members of Lancashire Fire and Rescue have joined thousands of crews from across the country in London to lobby a meeting of the Fire Brigade Union and the Fire Service National Employers.

If union members vote in favour of strike action it will mark the first fire service strike since 1977. The union are demanding a rise from £21,500 to £30,000 for both fire staff and emergency control workers.

The Fire Brigade Union claims that some firefighters have to claim working families tax credit to make ends meet, despite working 42-hour weeks and putting their lives at risk.

Stephen Harman, brigade secretary of the Fire Brigade Union in Lancashire, based at Washington Hall fire training centre, Euxton, said: "If our employers do not meet our demands we will have no choice. The only threat we can have as a union is to withdraw our labour."