Country invades town in a show of force (and ferrets)

Campaigners claim to have sent a defiant message to the Government yesterday when an estimated 400,000 farmers, hunters and rural workers joined one of the biggest protests held in London.

But the Government said it was pressing ahead, without delay, with plans to introduce a fox-hunting Bill. The march organisers warned that the country would "erupt in fury" if the Government ignored its demands on hunting.

The Countryside Alliance claimed that more than 400,000 people turned up for the Liberty and Livelihood march, which used two routes through the centre of London. The Alliance claims that the protest was the largest "by a mile" that the country had seen, surpassing the CND demonstrations of the early 1980s and the later, bitter disputes over the poll tax. The Metropolitan Police estimated the numbers at 300,000.

Fox hunting dominated the march, which passed along Whitehall and past Downing Street, but farmers complaining about low prices and the Government's handling of the foot-and-mouth outbreak also joined the throng that disrupted central London all day. The marchers arrived in 2,500 coaches in response to a huge publicity campaign.

John Jackson, the chairman of the Countryside Alliance, said: "Anybody who thinks this is just about hunting must be living on a different planet from the rest of us." However, hunting was a litmus test for the Government to show willingness to deal justly with rural issues, he said. "If they make the mistake of doing something that's unjust, I have no doubt that the countryside will erupt in fury," he said.

Despite the presence of 150 anti-hunt protesters in Parliament Square, the march was peaceful. It was split in two because of the expected crowds, with starting points at Hyde Park and Blackfriars Bridge. Both began at 10am and people were still passing down Whitehall at 5.30pm.

The two routes converged in Whitehall where protesters were urged to fall silent as they approached the Cenotaph to demonstrate respect and the strength of their feeling. The organisers spent an estimated £1m, some of it on giant screens along the routes displaying live pictures of the protest.