Organised by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), it was a protest march against planned public spending cuts by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government that was formed in May 2010.

[3][7][10] Demonstrators marched from the Thames Embankment, via the Houses of Parliament, to Hyde Park where a rally took place with speakers including the TUC general secretary Brendan Barber and leader of the opposition Ed Miliband, who addressed the assembled crowds.

[3] Several independent protesting groups, some of whom had moved from the main march, assembled further north in the heart of London's West End, where shops and banks were vandalised and some individuals clashed with police.

[11] In May 2010, the United Kingdom general election resulted in a hung parliament and the Conservative Party and Liberal Democrats entered into a coalition government.

Amongst those joining the march were members of a variety of different sectors in public service, including teachers, nurses and midwives, as well as pensioners, students and direct action supporters.

[6] The march concluded at a rally in Hyde Park, where TUC general secretary Brendan Barber told demonstrators: "We are here to send a message to the government that we are strong and united... We will fight the savage cuts and we will not let them destroy peoples' services, jobs and lives.

[3] Over one hundred people including some members of the direct action group UK Uncut occupied the Fortnum & Mason store as a protest against alleged tax avoidance by the business's owners.

[22] Some of those involved in these included alleged anarchists and Black bloc protesters who clashed with police and committed vandalism and criminal damage at a number of locations in the West End.

[20] Clashes between protesters and police continued into the night at Trafalgar Square, where missiles were thrown, banners were burned, and Nelson's Column was graffitied.

[25] However, Brian Paddick, a former deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, claimed that there were not enough officers "in the right place at the right time" and suggested intelligence had not been heeded.

He told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend: "It appears to me that they just didn't have the right numbers of officers in the right place at the right time to prevent not only the problems at Fortnum & Mason but at Trafalgar Square.

[11] He told The Politics Show: "No government – coalition, Labour or any other – would change its fundamental economic policy simply in response to a demonstration of that kind."