Civil servants in three Whitehall departments to go on strike for a month

Stoppages will affect passport and border checks, driving tests and farm payments throughout Christmas

Civil servants in three Whitehall departments will take sustained" strike action for a month from mid-December, as the first step in an escalating" campaign, the Public and Commercial Services union has announced.

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS, said the initial action in the Home Office, Department for Transport and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, would involve low thousands" of the 100,000 members who backed strike action in a recent ballot.