Groups stage Downing Street Budget protest

The Government faced a series of pre-Budget protests today by a number of groups campaigning against measures including spending cuts.

Trade union activists, anti-tax avoidance campaigners and anti-Trident group CND held banner-waving demonstrations outside Downing Street shortly before Chancellor George Osborne was due to deliver his Budget speech to the Commons.

Members of direct action group UK Uncut, the Right to Work campaign and a number of unemployed youngsters also stood outside the gates of Downing Street to highlight "soaring" unemployment.

They recreated the Conservatives' 1979 election poster featuring a queue of jobseekers.

PA