Tens of thousands of people have joined an anti-austerity protest in Manchester on the opening day of the Conservative party conference, voicing opposition to policies including spending and benefit cuts, NHS reforms and restrictions on trade unions.

Up to 60,000 people are said to have joined the demonstration, which was largely peaceful, although a breakaway group pelted a young Tory with eggs, and spat at journalists and called them “scum”. The egging incident took place on Oxford Road as young delegates wearing Tory party conference lanyards were surrounded by a group of protesters chanting “Tory scum.”

Earlier a man was arrested on suspicion of assault after a journalist from the Huffington Post was spat at as he left the conference venue. Another man was arrested on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly, Greater Manchester police said.

Chief Superintendent John O’Hare of Greater Manchester Police said: “Today around 60,000 people took part in a demonstration and I would like to thank them for their cooperation. The overwhelming majority of people have exercised their democratic right to protest with dignity and good grace. The fact that only four arrests have been made throughout the day so far was particularly pleasing.”



The marchers represented a mix of specialist interest groups including steel workers from the mothballed SSI plant in Redcar, pro-cannabis activists from Greater Manchester, Jews for Palestine, anarchists, the hacktivist group Anonymous and a number of trade unions, as well as families with buggies and wheelchairs.



A Conservative delegate had eggs thrown at him by a small group of protesters. Photograph: Ray Tang/Rex

Elizabeth Webb, 63, had brought her two disabled daughters, 20-year-old Joy and Nicola, 42. She said she was protesting because Conservative polices had led to a direct deterioration in her family’s life. “I think it’s so disgusting what this government is doing with welfare cuts. The most vulnerable are the ones who are suffering most,” she said, waving a placard bearing a lifesize cutout of David Cameron with a pig protruding from his crotch and a sign around his neck saying “I am a grunt”.



There were a number of references to pigs among the marchers. “I did not have sexual relations with that pig” read one banner; “The Tories fuck everything they touch” went another.

Teacher Pamela Sullivan, 46, and her friend Rachel Harrison, a nurse, were among many marchers sweating under pig masks in the unseasonal Manchester heat – which was later declared “socialist sunshine” by the former Coronation Street actor Julie Hesmondhalgh.

After recent allegations about David Cameron there were several references to pigs among the marchers. Photograph: Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images

“I think we have had enough of the privileged elite thinking this country is their bank, lining their pockets and taking it away from the poor,” said Sullivan. Harrison said: “I work in healthcare and all we have seen is cuts and cuts, and yet the government was quick to bail out bankers and is still talking about spending billions on Trident.”

Cath Mackay, a retired nurse from Bingley wearing a “Still hate Thatcher” T-shirt, said she had a number of reasons for protesting: “Apart from harrassing the Tories, we have got to standing up for the workers and the poor.” She said she had been appalled to see how many homeless people in Manchester appeared to be living in tents in the city centre. “It’s a disgrace. It’s all right for these MPs having two or three homes, but what about these people who don’t even have one?”

Union leaders and officials from campaign groups, including CND, addressed a rally in the city centre before leading the procession, which included one woman who was wearing a knitted Jeremy Corbyn beard.

Singer Billy Bragg warmed up the growing crowd with a set on stage, changing the lyrics to his best-known songs to add topical references such as “take the money from Trident and spend it on the NHS” and “these Tory cuts will get me the sack”. The march then set off towards the Castlefield canalside district, taking three hours to wind through the city centre.

Addressing a packed-out rally in Castlefield, singer Charlotte Church said the nation was in the grip of class war.

Charlotte Church addresses the anti-austerity protest on the first day of the Conservative conference in Manchester. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

“This ideological persecution of the people threatens our very democracy. Our rights are being stripped away from us,” she said, going on to criticise the media: “The press paint Jeremy Corbyn as a political extremist, yet go easy on a prime minister who may or may not have been photographed in flagrante with the severed head of a farmyard animal.”

She added: “The government is firmly and unashamedly in the pocket of energy companies and big corporations and media moguls. Our democracy is under threat from all sides. That’s why it’s so moving to see this many people standing up for what is right and just. Equality, egality, humanity and democracy. This is not a radical fringe but a growing social movement.”

Among some Tory delegates the atmosphere was a little tense. In an email to conference delegates last week, the Conservative party chairman, Lord Feldman, said it was “particularly important” this year for activists to take the Tory-branded identification badges off when around town due to safety concerns.

Passing the Midland hotel wearing a conference lanyard before the march began, the Guardian’s reporter was urged to hide her pass by a well-dressed elderly couple. “Please, you won’t be safe. There have been warnings,” said the gentleman.

The Guardian ignored him, only to be targeted on Oxford Road by an angry young man shouting: “Tory scum, Tory scum” at close range. When she said she was a journalist, he changed his chant to “journalist scum”.