David Blunkett faced demands yesterday to resign from the Cabinet for the second time in a year as the controversy grew over his links with a DNA testing firm. Negotiations with the contracting firms had gone well but the dispute could only be resolved if the parliamentary authorities offer more money.Of the contract cleaners, 140 are employed by Mitie Cleaning, which has been working in the Houses of Parliament for eight years. Cleaners in the Lords start at £7.89 an hour, receive a pension and get 30 days' paid holiday a year.House of Commons cleaners staged their first strike in September, for 24 hours, but the action had little effect.Jack Dromey, the deputy general secretary of the T&G, said that parliamentary authorities had refused to attend meetings because they "would achieve nothing".Mr Dromey said: "In today's democracy it seems inconceivable that unelected, privileged civil servants are blocking attempts by parliamentarians to get their cleaners a living wage."We have been overwhelmed with support by MPs and peers but the stubborn refusal of the parliamentary authorities to act has led our members to decide they have no alternative but to mount picket lines outside Parliament."Mr Dromey plans to "name and shame" MPs who have stayed silent on the subject and said that more than 250 MPs and members of the Lords had declared their support. The adult minimum wage is £5.05 an hour. The strike means MPs and peers will face picket lines as they go to work on Wednesday of next week.The 170 cleaners, who have no sick pay or pension scheme and have only 12 days' holiday a year, want the same benefits as the cleaners employed by the House of Lords, who have not been contracted out to private companies.The cleaners hope that the strike will illustrate what they describe as their second class status in the Commons and will shame MPs, who earn £59,000 a year, into taking action. The action follows a breakdown in negotiations with the parliamentary authorities to increase the wages of cleaners from £5.20 an hour to £6.70. Cleaners at the House of Commons plan to strike for a second time in a bitter dispute over low pay and poor working conditions, the Transport and General Workers' Union (T&G) has announced. The cost is equivalent to 800 new city academy schools, 60 medium-sized hospitals or the employment of 20,000 new NHS consultants..

The Government will today be accused by rebellious Labour MPs of preparing to squander up to £20bn of taxpayers' money by replacing Trident with a new generation of nuclear weaponry. Tony Blair's determination to ensure that Britain's independent nuclear deterrent will be retained well into the middle of this century is set to provoke the most ferocious row yet in his increasingly fraught third term. If it happens, it will be targeted to tackle a particular and specific problem."Mr Blair has put his "respect agenda" at the heart of his personal programme before he steps down as Prime Minister.The strategy was due to be published before Christmas but its publication could slip into the new year.. It was among several ideas examined by Mr Blair's "respect unit", headed by Louise Casey, his antisocial behaviour tsar. The proposal was mocked yesterday as "nanny statism" by opposition parties and transport companies.Last night a Downing Street spokeswoman said: "There aren't any plans to introduce a blanket ban on drinking on public transport.

We will do them and we will capture the future, because we will push forward reforms in all these areas."But David Laws, the Liberal Democrats' work and pensions spokesman, said that the government squabbling was preventing urgently needed reform of the welfare system.He said that Mr Blunkett was "weakened and distracted" while the Prime Minister was making up incapacity benefit policies "on the back of a fag packet".Meanwhile, the Government is backing off from a suggested ban on drinking alcohol on all forms of public transport in an attempt to combat yobbery. And this Government has made absolutely plain we are going to be radical, we are going to push forward reforms Because they are controversial, will not stop us doing them. "These are all highly sensitive, highly controversial subjects," he told the BBC yesterday "But they are what people are concerned about. Mr Blunkett is understood to have sent a strongly worded letter late last week to Downing Street warning that he cannot accept demands to toughen up proposed legislation.The Prime Minister's advisers are believed to be pressing for the means-testing of payments to ensure that better-off disabled claimants do not qualify.They are also calling for a limit on the amount of time for which benefits can be claimed, and for some payments to be made in the form of vouchers for job-training schemes.Other ideas being floated include naming those doctors who approve the most applications, and giving employers the right of appeal when an employee is signed off sick.Mr Blunkett is said to have protested that any such measures would go too far and threaten to humiliate the disabled, as well as complaining over excessive interference in his department.He is likely to be supported by several cabinet colleagues, and any such moves would also be guaranteed to spark a Commons rebellion among Labour backbenchers.John Reid, the Defence Secretary, conceded yesterday that there were divisions in the Cabinet over crucial issues. Days after tensions surfaced among ministers over education reforms and banning smoking in public places, moves by the Prime Minister to overhaul the incapacity benefit system have provoked government in-fighting. As Mr Blair seeks to secure his legacy, resistance is also growing in Whitehall to his "respect agenda", including proposals for a fresh drive against antisocial behaviour. Tony Blair's reform agenda was hit by yet another cabinet backlash yesterday as his Work and Pensions Secretary, David Blunkett, denounced plans to crack down on sickness benefits. "David Blunkett has the full support of the Prime Minister full stop Questions have been asked and questions will be answered.".