CON-DEM ministers face an embarrassing walkout by their own civil servants after the PCS union yesterday backed a bid for a mass summer strike. 

Thousands of government staff, many based in Whitehall department headquarters, could join a massive strike on July 10.

PCS are among five unions considering co-ordinated action that could see well over a million workers walkout together, the Star revealed earlier this month. 

And members voted yesterday to push ahead with the ambitious plans. 

They instructed leaders to press for co-ordinated action and consult members over a one-day July walkout. 

Assistant general secretary Chris Baugh said: “We will do everything in our power to co-ordinate action with unions that are serious about a fight. 

“You can never guarantee that action materialises but you can guarantee that this union and its leadership will do everything it can to make it happen.”

Civil servants are among struggling public-sector workers mulling action over the pay freeze imposed on them by the Tory-led coalition.

Local government workers and NHS staff being balloted by Unite, Unison and GMB, along with teachers could also join a walkout. 

July 10 has been suggested by Unison but no union has yet named that date for action and talks are ongoing. 

A motion calling for PCS to be the first to commit to taking action on the date fell after the executive opposed it. 

Edinburgh delegate Gerry McMahon insisted doing so would be a “springboard” for other unions to join in. 

The executive-backed motion passed overwhelmingly by conference called on the TUC to establish a working group of unions in dispute to help organise action. 

But DVLA Swansea delegate Dave Warren said it was “naive” to think PCS could “bounce” other unions into action. 

And Lawrence Dunn of Liverpool compared the proposal to a “two-footed Steven Gerrard tackle — overcommitted.”

PCS executive member Cheryl Gedling said the union needed to avoid taking isolated “protest action” that does not win concessions. 

She said PCS is a union “that has never stopped fighting back and never will stop fighting back.”