Thousands of union members and campaigners have staged protests in Westminster, rallying against the Government’s spending cuts.
Labour leader Ed Miliband pulled out of the rally, but a spokesperson denied the decision was a U-turn, despite Mr Miliband’s declaration last month that he would “definitely” attend.
Mr Miliband will instead meet union members from his constituency to hear their concerns about the coalition’s comprehensive spending review.
‘Non-political’
His aides insisted there had been no formal invite for Mr Miliband or any other politician to attend as the TUC is treating the event as “non-political”.
Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, said the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats wanted to “drag” the UK into a “dismal, downward spiral of despair” by announcing huge spending cuts in a bid to clear the country’s deficit.
“The truth is they are not interested in alternatives. They don’t care if the poor, the elderly, the vulnerable are the targets of cuts. They don’t care if hundreds of thousands of families suffer because they no longer have a breadwinner,” he said.
“They want us to believe that they have no choice and that this is an economic necessity. Yet economic experts across the spectrum warn us that the cuts are too deep and too rapid.” -Brendan Barber, TUC General Secretary
Mr Prentis vowed to continue the fight against deep public sector cuts.
“For every one of us in this room today, we will bring a hundred more. We’ll march in our thousands and we’ll vote in our millions,” he said.
‘Political choice’
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber told union members that the Government’s cuts programme is a political choice, not an economic necessity.
He said the cuts would make Britain “a more unequal, more squalid and nastier country”:
“Tomorrow, the Government will announce unprecedented cuts in public spending – deeper than any of us can remember. They will bite deep into our social fabric – and hit some of the poorest and most vulnerable members of our society,” Mr Barber said.
“They want us to believe that they have no choice and that this is economic necessity. Yet economic experts across the spectrum warn us that the cuts are too deep and too rapid.
“At worst the cuts will plunge us back into recession, and at best they will condemn us to lost years of high unemployment and growth so weak that the deficit may well stay high.”
Unite said it is hoping to persuade MPs that the cuts are too deep and are happening too quickly.