Darling faces Budget day picket lines

Civil servants are striking over redundancy pay terms as the Chancellor delivers his final Budget before the next General Election.

Members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union are staging a 24-hour national walkout, following a two-day stoppage earlier this month, which is disrupting courts, jobcentres, benefit offices, driving tests, prisons, ports and 999 operators working for the Metropolitan Police.

Strikers are at picket lines outside the Treasury, Downing Street and Parliament.

Demonstrations are also being held across the UK, including an "alternative Budget" presented in Edinburgh and rally on the steps of the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff. The last two-day stoppage saw the cancellation of business in the Welsh Assembly and the Scottish Parliament when assembly members and MSPs refused to cross picket lines.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "It is no coincidence that PCS members are striking on Budget Day to defend jobs and services. As the Government seeks to make it easier and cheaper for whoever wins the election to cut civil and public servants, we can expect a drive to slash jobs which will ultimately lead to poorer services. Loyal civil servants have already seen the damage that 100,000 job cuts has wrought and will not stand by and allow the jobs and services they are proud to deliver slashed."