U.K govt’s spending cuts policy sparks protest in London

The recent United Kingdom (U.K) government’s spending cuts and welfare reform policy has sparked protest in Central London.

Thousands of people on Saturday gathered to “send a message” to the government with a demonstration over spending cuts and welfare reform.

Many of the protesters were holding placards that read “Tax the rich, stop the cuts – welfare not warfare”. Other signs being held aloft said “Nurses not nukes” and “Cut war, not welfare”.

According to MyLondon, MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott were among those who gave speeches at a rally in Whitehall. The organisers accused the government of making spending cuts that target the poorest in society.

Campaign group The People’s Assembly said trade unionists, campaigners and activists attended the demonstration in central London on Saturday.

Representatives from the National Education Union, Revolutionary Communist Party, Green Party and the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union could all be seen at the march’s start point in Portland Place. The large crowd then set off towards Whitehall shortly before 1pm.

A People’s Assembly spokesperson said: “The adherence to ‘fiscal rules’ traps us in a public service funding crisis, increasing poverty, worsening mental health and freezing public sector pay. Scrapping winter fuel payments, keeping the Tory two-child benefit cap, abandoning Waspi women, cutting £5 billion of welfare by limiting Pip and Universal Credit eligibility, and slashing UK foreign aid from 0.5% to 0.3% of GDP, while increasing defence spending to 2.5% of GDP, are presented as ‘tough choices’.

“Real tough choices would be for a Labour government to tax the rich and their hidden wealth, to fund public services, fair pay, investment in communities and the NHS.”

Speaking at the Whitehall rally, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “As the wars rage around the world – the killing fields in Ukraine and Russia, the abominable, deliberate starvation of children in Gaza and the genocide that’s inflicted against the Palestinian people continues – surely to goodness we need a world of peace.

“We need a world of peace that will come through the vision of peace, the vision of disarmament and the vision of actually challenging the causes of war, which leads to the desperation and the refugee flows of today.”

The now Independent MP for Islington North urged protesters to “go forward as a movement of hope, of what we can achieve together [and] the society we can build together”.