Soldiers are being trained to keep ambulance and border services running as the government braces itself for the worst strike action in a generation.

A 48-hour rail strike begins tomorrow, nurses walk out on Thursday, and teachers, junior doctors, midwives and firefighters are being balloted on action, with ministers unwilling to hold direct talks.

Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden said the Cobra committee will meet regularly from today and vowed to ‘protect the public’.

He said: ‘Of course we want to ensure people are paid fairly, but what isn’t fair is for union bosses to put people’s livelihoods at risk in order to push their pay demands to the front of the queue.’

The government says the cost of meeting an inflation-level 11% pay rise for public sector workers is an ‘unaffordable’ £28 billion.

But ex-Army head Lord Dannatt warned that, a year on from soldiers helping in the pandemic: ‘Here we are once again.

‘Soldiers might decide they’ve had enough of bailing the government out of the muddles it gets itself into. They might think, “I joined to be a soldier, not a strike-breaker”.’

The government has rowed back on plans for new laws to restrict strikes for emergency workers and require minimum service levels for others in the public sector.

Meanwhile, 40 Conservative MPs have signed a letter to prime minister Rishi Sunak, demanding that he slash public spending.

Supporters of ousted PM Boris Johnson claimed £7 billion could be cut from the public sector, including more than £500 million being spent on equality, diversity and inclusion projects.

‘We will have a much better chance of cutting taxes or spending more on front-line services if we end this sort of waste,’ they warned.

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