PROTESTERS gathered across Britain today in a national day of action against the government’s plan to cut disability welfare.

The Welfare Not Warfare demonstrations, organised by Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC), Stop the War and others, saw campaigners convene outside Downing Street as Chancellor Rachel Reeves delivered her Spring Statement.

Protesters held aloft signs reading “Cuts kill” and “Cut war not welfare” while chants of “No more deaths from benefit cuts” and “The people united will never be defeated” were heard.

One woman held a sign saying: “You are killing my mum to bomb someone’s son.”

In Glasgow, activists rallied outside the Ministry of Defence’s administrative base to demand the government “invest in life, not in death.”

Members of Unison, Unite, GMB, UCU, and CWU joined members of Crips against Cuts, Dpac and Glasgow Disability Alliance to end the “terrorism” being meted out in welfare cuts.

Stop the War Scotland trade union convener and GMB Scotland’s young workers’ network chairman Nathan Hennebry said: “These cuts are more than just the ctrl-alt-delete on a spreadsheet, these are people’s lives that the government continues to gamble with, people they continue to push down into abject poverty.

“They propose war across the globe, whether it be Ukraine or Palestine, and look to young workers to be the cannon fodder as we always have been.

“The British Establishment, if conscription and war goes ahead, will drag you from your homes to raise a bayonet and they’ll expect you to do it against a fellow worker.

“So let’s fight to protect our most vulnerable at home, and protect our fellow workers across the globe.”

“This is an abomination,” said PCS union rep Liz McGahey, “this is Labour acting in the most Tory-like manner.

“The fact of the matter is that it’s not disabled people, it’s not benefit claimants or welfare claimants, it’s not the immigrants that are causing this crisis.

“It is the likes of [Tory peer and businesswoman] Michelle Mones, the multimillionaires and billionaires who refuse to pay tax, who have their money in offshore accounts rather than put it back into this economy who are to blame.

“Let’s not give up, let’s stand together and let’s fight these cuts — every single one of them.”

At a protest in Leeds, Leyla Ball said the government’s attack on disabled people would affect her two-year-old son Ibrahim’s future, who has a physical disability.

“He will be affected by the legacy of these cuts,” she said.  “This is the system he is going to grow up in to.

“Many of us have struggled to work and we feel the government is cruel and wrong to target disabled people.”

The government previously announced tighter eligibility criteria for the Personal Independence Payment and changes to the sickness element of Universal Credit.

Today, Ms Reeves also confirmed that Universal Credit health benefits for new claimants will be halved in 2026 and then frozen until 2030.

It came as an impact assessment by the government into the predicted effects of the reforms revealed that the cuts will push an additional 250,000 people — including 50,000 children  — into relative poverty by 2029-30.

Ellen Clifford of the UK Deaf and Disabled People’s Organisations Monitoring Coalition said: “Everything given to disabled people in benefits goes straight back into the economy because we spend everything we are given on essentials.

“The scale of these cuts are simply and terrifyingly enormous.

“The consequences for society will be immense and the human cost will be devastating.

“Labour is making an unimaginably big mistake and it’s the poorest and most disadvantaged of us who will be left paying for it for generations to come.”

Dpac co-founder Linda Burnip said Labour should be ashamed that its cuts will “push disabled people into even greater poverty and destitution and cause many more to kill themselves.”

“Disabled people will not allow themselves to be made scapegoats for Robber Reeves cuts while millionaires remain untouched by cuts.”