OUR anti-austerity fightback must have our postal service at its heart and stop the “race to the bottom,” a mass rally heard last night.

A packed meeting for the Communication Workers Union’s People’s Post campaign heard from Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn alongside, Green leader Natalie Bennett, singer Charlotte Church and Milifandom founder Abby Tomlinson.

Addressing the crowds in Manchester cathedral, CWU general secretary Dave Ward said: “The government’s austerity agenda and Trade Union Bill are fundamentally shifting the balance of forces in this country, with working people losing out.

“This is mirrored in the postal industry where daily deliveries are being put at risk from competition and postal workers’ terms and conditions are being put under ever great pressure by a regulator that sees a race to the bottom as a sign of success.

“Thousands of people here tonight are giving a message loud and clear to the Tory conference: it’s time for society to be run in the interests of the millions, not the millionaires.”

Many attendees had travelled to Manchester to demonstrate against the Conservative Party conference. Mr Corbyn’s attendance is thought to be the first time an opposition leader has addressed mass protests during the conference of a governing party.

Ms Tomlinson, who shot to fame when she led a social media movement honouring Mr Corbyn’s predecessor Ed Miliband, slammed the Tories for being a party “insistent to make the rich richer and the poor poorer.”

In an impassioned address, she said: “Austerity is not ‘necessary.’

“Struggling to just survive, worrying about how you are going to afford to feed your family is not necessary.

“Dismantling our NHS, deliberately demoralising our staff, making excuses for privatisation is not necessary.

“Taking away the rights of workers and restricting trade unions is not necessary.”

And she said the Tories’ approach to the post was symptomatic of its wider agenda.

“The scandalous sell-off of Royal Mail cost taxpayers billions. This money could have built schools. It could have built hospitals. It could have built a fairer society.”

Mr Ward added: “While the government may have privatised Royal Mail, the CWU is not going away. The service has always been, and must remain, the People’s Post.”