PRIME Minister Tony Blair felt the full wrath of striking firefighters yesterday when he returned to the North-East and praised the way troops had dealt with emergencies.

He was barracked by angry strikers throughout a series of visits across the region as talks between their union and employers broke down again.

Mr Blair remained composed as the small group of firefighters jeered him when he visited the Territorial Army centre in Neasham Road, Darlington.

He ignored the heckling from 100 yards away as he watched RAF and Army crews tackle a mock fire using a Green Goddess, a reserve red fire engine and an RAF rescue vehicle.

The demonstrators shouted: "Don't be shy, come and talk to us Mr Blair, you can't hide forever.

"If you would just talk to us, Mr Blair, you wouldn't have to rely on the soldiers."

But the Prime Minister remained impassive as he met members of the 40th Regiment Royal Artillery, based at Topcliffe, North Yorkshire, and praised them for their efforts during the strike.

On leaving the centre he said the strikes could not be justified. "Under the existing pay formula, which has been in place for 25 years, there's four per cent on the table," said Mr Blair.

"If they want more than that, it's got to be paid for by a turnaround in working practices.

"The armed forces have coped brilliantly and we have learnt about shift work and part-time and full-time people responding to incidents together, and these are the basic changes that can be achieved."

But the hecklers said the Government did not understand exactly how the brigade works.

They claimed having part-time and full-time firefighters working together would put the public at risk by increasing response times.

Jeff Crawford, who works at Stockton fire station, said: "I challenge anyone who says our public support is waning."

The Prime Minister was later jeered again by firefighters and their supporters as his official motorcade arrived at Gosforth High School on the outskirts of Newcastle, where he was opening a £9m new wing.

There was no respite for Mr Blair when he visited the DLI Museum, in Durham City.

He was met by a crowd of about 12 firefighters, waving placards, who heckled him with calls for fair pay as he walked into the museum.

Meanwhile, talks in London between the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) and local authority employers ended without agreement after three hours when no new pay offer was tabled.

A union spokesman accused ministers of "playing with people's lives".

Charles Nolda, chief executive of the employers' organisation, said the talks had involved a "useful exchange of views".

But he said that the position had been laid down by the Government in "very clear terms".

He added: "It is about pay and modernisation but modernisation is the issue we are focusing on as employers."

Firefighters will end their present action at 9am today, but a second eight-day strike is due to start on Wednesday

* Relations between the Government and firefighters looked likely to worsen tonight as Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram said an FBU official was "not fit to lace the boots" of soldiers standing in for striking crews.

Mr Ingram demanded FBU national officer Dave Patten apologise for claiming that the Army was not coping with fighting fires.

l Public support for firefighters has dropped since crews began their series of strikes, a YouGov survey for ITN showed last night.

The majority of people (56 per cent) surveyed on November 28 and 29 said they did not back the firefighters, up 17 points since October 23, while 40 per cent said they were in support, down 15 per cent.

More people also think the Government has handled the dispute badly.

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