MILITARY personnel are receiving training to cover striking Border Force staff at ports and airports, the Cabinet Office has confirmed. 

Around 600 armed forces personnel are being prepared to carry out passport checks at the border, following a vote in favour of strike action by members of Border Force union PCS. 

The government is also looking at the military to drive ambulances and fill in for striking firefighters, the Cabinet Office said in a press notice today. 

Asked about the plans to draft in the military as a strike-breaking force, Tory Party chairman Mr Zahawi told Sky News on Sunday it was “right and responsible” to have contingency plans in place. 

“We have been looking at the military, we are looking at a specialist response force which we have actually set up a number of years ago,” he said. 

“We have to make sure our borders are always secure and that is something we guarantee.”

The comments confirm reports in the Guardian that military personnel were being given five days training to cover jobs at ports including Dover and Heathrow. Army personnel are expected to carry out the roles in their military uniforms. 

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka has previously described the plans as “pure desperation” by Home Secretary Suella Braverman. 

The plans have sparked alarm from anti-military campaigners. Symon Hill of the Peace Pledge Union told the Star: “Once again we see the people at the top of society using armed forces to undermine working-class power.

“If the government really wants to avoid strike action then instead of maintaining the fourth highest military budget in the world, they should be using that money to pay decent wages which people are calling for when they go on strike.”

Mr Hill added that immigration should not be a military role. “We already have borders that are too militarised. When we think of refugees who might have fled war or military persecution, to be met by uniformed soldiers asserting authority over them — that’s not the way our country should be treating people.”