THOUSANDS will march through London on Saturday to oppose brutal spending cuts inflicted by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s government.

The People’s Assembly’s first national anti-austerity demonstration under the new Labour government will kick off at noon from Portland Place and finish at Whitehall.

Representatives from unions including the NEU, PCS, RMT, and FBU are set to join, alongside campaigners from groups such as the Stop the War Coalition, Stand Up to Racism and the CND.

NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said: “We face a growing threat from the far right, fuelled by racism, division and failed politics. 

“We need to see people’s lives improve, we need to see the vulnerable cared for and an end to child poverty.”

The demonstration comes amid Labour’s plans to inflict £5 billion a year in welfare cuts by 2030. 

Meanwhile, the government is set to ramp up defence spending from 2.3 to 3 per cent of GDP over the next parliament. This week, it committed to spending £15bn on nuclear warheads and £5bn on autonomous defence tech.

At the same time, concern over the future of the NHS continues to grow as it faces chronic staff shortages, proposed job cuts, and accelerating privatisation.

NHS England bosses have ordered drastic cuts to ward off a predicted £6.6bn deficit.

Keep Our NHS Public co-chair Dr John Puntis, who will be speaking at the protest, said: ”In 1948, a war-ravaged economy did not persuade politicians that creating the NHS was unaffordable. 

“More recently, austerity has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and irreparably damaged people’s health. 

“Rather than a second phase of austerity, we must have economic thinking geared to investment in public services, making lives better and redistributing wealth more fairly.”