The age of austerity has been replaced by an "age of imagination" in which "we will achieve that decency and social justice that we all crave", according to Jeremy Corbyn.

Addressing a crowd of thousands of anti-austerity protesters in Parliament Square in central London, the Labour leader claimed the Conservatives were on the back foot and his party was in the ascendancy.

"The Tories are in retreat, austerity is in retreat, the economic arguments of austerity are in retreat," he told the demonstrators, who had marched from BBC Broadcasting House in Portland Place.

"It's those of social justice, of unity, of people coming together to oppose racism and all those that would divide us, that are the ones that are moving forward.

'We want to protect our public services'

"This is the age of imagination, this is the age in which we will achieve that decency and social justice that we all crave."


Mr Corbyn was speaking on Labour's first day of national campaigning since last month's shock election result, which saw Theresa May lose her Commons majority and Labour pick up 30 seats.

Earlier, he told a rally in Hastings, East Sussex, that austerity has been "selective, brutal, nasty and vile towards the poorest and most vulnerable".

Mr Corbyn hit out at the Conservatives for voting against lifting the cap on public sector pay, accusing the Government of hypocrisy.

Anti-austerity march: 'People are sick to the back teeth'

A number of members of his shadow cabinet was due to visit Tory-held marginals across the country on Saturday to insist Labour is a "government in waiting".

Mr Corbyn told the crowd in Hastings: "You could draw a map of England and Wales and Scotland, you could mark out the poorest areas and you could overlay it with a map of those who have had the biggest cuts, and you know what? The biggest cuts would obliterate the vision of the poorest areas in this country."

He said local government had suffered particularly badly, seeing funding "grotesquely cut", and also focused on the issue of public sector pay.

"The same people who can't get on the screens quick enough to praise the emergency services whenever there's a disaster, then voted to freeze their pay for yet another year," he said in attack on the Government.

Image: People converge on Parliament Square after marching through London in an anti-austerity protest

"Well I just hope people notice the double standards and the hypocrisy surrounding all of that."

Mr Corbyn said Labour was offering people "hope and opportunities" and investment in public services.

The Labour leader was speaking in Home Secretary Amber Rudd's constituency, which she managed to win with a majority of just 346 votes in the election.

He said the party had identified 73 constituencies in England, Wales and Scotland it can win.

Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson was to travel to Uxbridge and South Ruislip - the west London constituency held by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson - as part of the day of campaigning.

Mr Johnson's majority was slashed at the election and subsequent research has suggested he too could be vulnerable should Labour surge at the next election.