Waltham Forest residents joined thousands of campaigners who marched on Whitehall in protest against A&E cuts and a perceived threat of privatisation of the NHS.

At least 50 people from the borough joined the protesters on Saturday, meeting at Walthamstow Central underground station before bolstering the numbers walking to Downing Street.

The campaigners are angry about A&E closures and staff cuts across London and what they see as increased involvement of private medicine in the NHS.

Primary care trusts were abolished in April in favour of local clinical commissioning groups, which put out health services to tender from private companies.

The government believes this will increase competition and therefore create cheaper prices, but campaigners fear it will create a two-tier healthcare system where the rich can pay more on top of their NHS budget to get better treatment.

Jim Fagan, Keep Our NHS Public campaigner, said: “It was an excellent day. There was a very good turnout from Waltham Forest and it shows the strength of feeling and opposition to the changes this government is making.”