London, May 18 (RHC)-- Hundreds of Britons have staged anti-austerity protests against the new Conservative government's planned cuts to public spending. Some 1,000 people marched in the central city of Sheffield on Saturday to express opposition against the planned cuts of 30 billion pounds.
Protesters chanted, "You say cutback, we say fight back," and, "No ifs no buts no education cuts." The demonstrators also chanted slogans against the privatization of Britain's National Health Service (NHS) and cuts to disability allowances.
The Green Party leader, Natalie Bennett, took part in the protest march, which ended at the city center where she spoke to the crowd, saying, "We're angry and determined to fight." A similar protest was also held in the southern coastal city of Cardiff, in which demonstrators warned against a "Tory ideology of greed and money."
The rallies were the latest in a series of protests staged since Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative party won the general elections on May 7. The Conservatives won absolute majority of seats in the lower house of the British parliament.
Ahead of the vote, the Tories said they would cut 30 billion pounds in spending if they win a second term. Of this, 12 billion pounds would be cut from the welfare expenditure.
During Cameron's first term in office, the government launched austerity measures in 2010 in a bid to tackle the country's mounting debt and sluggish growth, but the policies have sparked public protests in recent years. The cuts have severely hit the poorest households in the country, forcing many of them to choose between paying for food or energy.
