PCS has condemned George Osborne’s attacks on the welfare budget and public services as he announced multi-billion pound cuts in his autumn statement and spending review.

The chancellor remains committed to the £12.5bn welfare cut he outlined in the summer budget, as well as more than £20bn in departmental spending cuts up to 2020.Since 2010, almost 90,000 civil service jobs have been cut, including more than one in four in lower paid admin grades. Further cuts to departmental budgets announced in the autumn statement will lead to tens of thousands more losing their jobs.

“We must unite around the austerity movement and oppose all cuts,” was the message PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka gave at a major anti-cuts meeting ahead of the spending review.

Mark said that the anti-austerity movement must provide the hope that is needed. He and other speakers, who included shadow chancellor John McDonnell and former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, argued powerfully for the real alternatives to the Tory slash-and-burn economics and pointed the way ahead for real, progressive change in the UK.

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Watch Mark Serwotka’s response to the autumn statement