Fuel strike: anger over government advice grows as woman burnt in petrol accident The union said that the accident highlighted fire service concerns that the serious dangers of having petrol in the home are not widely understood. The union Unite this morning ruled out a fuel tanker drivers' strike over Easter while talks continued to resolve the dispute. Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, accused the government of deliberately creating fuel panic to divert from its own problems caused by the cash-for-access disclosures. He said: "I do think that political games were played. I think the prime minister woke up on Monday morning and thought 'I've got the worst weekend I've had in government', because of the Tory donation scandal after a budget which had been judged by the country to be deeply unfair, and he thought 'Why don't I try to divert attention?' So suddenly, out of the blue, we had government ministers talking up a strike which wasn't even called - there's no date for this strike. When he should have been responsible, he decided to wind this up, he sent out his cabinet minister to say 'Fill up your jerrycans' and we've ended up with these queues, even though there's normal petrol deliveries, there's no strike, there has to be seven days' notice even if there was a strike. It was a political invention, the panic of the last couple of days, and the nation and some people are paying a very, very heavy price for that. I think it's backfired because I think people have generally seen that these are schoolboy political games being played by people who should be doing responsible jobs. The announcement was made as pressure grew on both parties to resolve the row after a fuel retailers body warned of a three-day backlog and a woman suffered 40 per cent burns in a petrol fire. Unite, which represents 2,000 tanker drivers, said it wanted to focus on negotiations, which start next week. Assistant general secretary Diana Holland said: "We will not be calling Easter strike action as we focus on substantive talks through Acas. We do still retain the right to call strike action for after the Easter, should those talks break down. "Government created this fuel crisis and now must take full control," Mr Madderson added. He said there was no evidence of profiteering by retailers with price increases of less than one per cent over the past week. On Thursday, ministers had said drivers should not rush to the pumps but should take the "sensible" measure of keeping their tanks two thirds full. Mike Penning, the transport minister and a former fireman, had been scrambled to television and radio studios to tell motorists to ignore Mr Maude's "mistaken" advice to fill jerry cans with petrol, which followed vague government suggestions that drivers should make their own "contingency plans."