Merely a week after their abject defeat in the bedroom tax debate, Tory MPs were put under further pressure yesterday as protesters took to the streets against benefit sanctions.

Welfare defence groups including the Anti-Bedroom Tax and Benefit Justice Campaign and Disabled Peoples Against the Cuts (DPAC), together with civil servants union PCS, hosted a day of action with demonstrations taking place across the country.

In Manchester and Birmingham activists assembled outside local job centres, while marches and rallies were also organised in Leeds, Huddersfield, Ashton and Milton Keynes.