FIREFIGHTERS battling cuts to their pensions hit back at millionaire ministers yesterday for lining their own pockets “while everybody else is robbed blind.”

Fire Brigades Union members in England will begin a four-day walkout at 6pm tonight as they fight against plans to raise their pension contributions to 49 per cent and force them to work five years longer.

Tory ministers mounted a desperate smear offensive yesterday with claims that firefighters had been given a “generous” offer.

But FBU general secretary Matt Wrack was quick to highlight that ministers had the most heavily subsidised pension scheme in the public sector, paying just 37 per cent of costs.

“We have a government of millionaires who are wrecking the pensions of firefighters and other public-sector workers while the real scandal is that their own pensions are by far the most generous,” he said.

“This is a case of those at the top getting more while everyone else is robbed blind.”