Union leader warns of civil unrest in face of austerity programme

A union leader has called for a campaign of "civil disobedience" in protest at the Government's austerity measures.

Unite's Len McCluskey pledged to "fight all the way to the next election" as he said no form of protest, including the prospect of a general strike, should be ruled out. He said the Govern- ment's policies, designed to balance the nation's books, were leaving working people feeling "battered".

Mr McCluskey told Sky News's Murnaghan programme: "When governments are acting in a way that is against ordinary working people we have a right, in fact we have a duty, to stand up and protest. Those protests will take all kinds of different forms – marches on streets, civil dis-obedience, industrial action. All of those should be used and none of them should be ruled out."