A ROW over support for a strike by civil servants has broken out amid the latest round of industrial action by public sector workers in protest at Government policies.

Staff in courts, museums, driving test centres, jobcentres, ports and airports across the UK walked out for 24 hours in a long-running dispute over job losses, pay cuts and pension increases.

The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) said up to 140,000 of its members took part in the action, disrupting services at departments including Work and Pensions, Justice, Home Office, DVLA and Revenue and Customs.

It was expected to involve up to 20,000 people in Scotland.

But the Cabinet Office said the "overwhelming majority" of civil servants had not voted for the strike, and turned up for work as normal.

A spokesman said yesterday: "The leadership of PCS have yet again made inflated claims about how many are taking part in strike action, and again they will be shown to be wrong.

"The strong indication is that the number of civil servants on strike is fewer than 72,000, less than a third of the PCS' inflated membership claims - making it a new low for a national PCS strike.

"Well-rehearsed contingency plans are ensuring that nearly all key public services are being delivered as usual, and all Jobcentres opened this morning."