Budget protesters try to blockade Downing Street

They carried placards in the shape of the Chancellor’s red briefcase, reading Block The Bankers’ Budget, and sat down in the road outside the main exit.

They said that the cuts will have a huge impact on the lives of women, such as the closure of women’s refuges, cuts to child, disability, carers and housing benefits, the roll back of maternity rights and public sector job losses.

Sara Ayech, one of the protesters, said: “This Budget has been written for the benefit of big business and the banking sector, not for ordinary people. The banks destroyed the economy and in return received the bail-out and bonuses.

“But the Government is choosing to make everyone else pay the price through unemployment, the decimation of the welfare state and the NHS.

“The welfare state was fought for and won by ordinary people only 64 years ago. It’s now under attack by the coalition government and we are here to defend it and show that people will resist the injustice of these cuts.”