Britain's most senior trade unionist has accused ministers of "deliberately misleading" public sector workers over the impact of planned changes to their pensions.
As up 2.6 million public sector workers prepared to stage a mass 24-hour strike on Wednesday, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber ratcheted up the bitter war of words with the Government.
In an interview with The Observer, he attacked ministers' claims that all workers on low and middle incomes would get as good, or better, pension terms under the new scheme. "They have deliberately misrepresented the generosity of their proposals," he said.
The unions said ministers' assertions - repeated by David Cameron last week at Prime Minister's Questions - were contradicted by the government pensions calculator on the official Civil Service website.
They said that examples fed into the calculator appeared to support their claim that some people would lose out under the new scheme, even if they worked until they were 67.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, however, said that it was the union bosses who were "wilfully misrepresenting" the Government's position.
He sought to appeal directly to the members, urging them to ignore their "increasingly militant" leadership. "The only thing I ask them to do between now and next Wednesday is to sit at their desk, flip open their laptop, get on to the government website and look at what we are actually offering and compare it to what they are being told by their union bosses," he told The Observer.
Meanwhile, shadow chancellor Ed Balls said: "This isn't about trade union leaders - this is about dinner ladies and teaching assistants and people in local government who feel as though they've worked hard for 30 years and suddenly are being stung at a late stage in their career - predominantly low-paid women. I have huge sympathy with them," he told The Independent on Sunday.
While he said the unions still needed "to give some ground" in order to reach a settlement, he accused ministers of seeking a confrontation. "Despite the best efforts of civil servants and negotiators and maybe some ministers, it is pretty clear that, at the most senior level, the Government's been determined to have a confrontation," he said.
Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude refused to rule out the Army being brought in to guard Britain's borders when UK Border Agency (UKBA) staff walk out on Wednesday. He told Sky News: "It is not what we would prefer to do but I'm told that the UKBA is looking at all the options. It is not great for Britain's image to have these strikes going ahead. That is a self-inflicted wound."