Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

35,000 protest at party conference

Updated at 9:09 am on 3 October 2011

An estimated 35,000 people turned out in Manchester to demonstrate at the British Conservative Party's annual conference on Sunday.

The march was organised by the Trades Union Congress, which said the rally was against the government's policies of pay freezes, public service cuts, rising unemployment and cuts in living standards.

The Conservative Party is the senior partner in the governing coalition formed with the Liberal Democrats following elections in May 2010. They have set a target to balance Britain's budget by 2015.

Police said the march had been peaceful with no arrests.

The Public and Commercial Services Union, said a mass strike would be called by several trade unions on 30 November.

Foreign Secretary William Hague blamed Britain's economic woes and necessary austerity measures on the legacy of the previous Labour government.

"The money you were promised by the last Labour government never existed. It was never there. And we have been left with the task of telling you that truth," he said.

"A government betrays instead of serving its people if it allows them to live on a delusion," Mr Hague added.

"And above all it is wrong, unfair and irresponsible to leave a massive debt for the next generation to deal with instead of facing up to it now."

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