COLLEGE lecturers, staff and students came out in force at a rally today against pending Government cuts.

More than 100 University and College Union, Unison, National Union of Students, GMB, Unite and Association of Teachers and Lecturers unions protested in Blackburn.

Blackburn College’s Unison branch secretary Adil Babar led the procession, beating a drum from St Paul’s Garden’s to Blackburn Town Hall at lunchtime.

People looked on as the group holding placards shouted ‘defend our jobs, defend education’ as they made their way to the town hall.

The protest was one of many held across the country against proposals of cuts which are due to be announced in today’s budget by the treasurer George Osborne.

Craig Hammond, chair of Blackburn’s University and College Union branch and Blackburn College lecturer, said: “To cut educational funding in an area like ours is a grave mistake at any time.

"But to cut it at a time of economic crisis when we need more and more skills to get us out of the recession is nothing short of criminal.”