FORMER Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn warned the Tory government that workers are ready to fight back against a new wave of austerity when he gave a rousing speech to striking lecturers, students and supporters at the University of Liverpool today. 

Members of the University and College Union (UCU) are staging 10 days of strike action against redundancies at its faculty of health and life sciences.

Initially 47 jobs were under threat but sustained industrial action has reduced the number to just two.

But the lecturers voted by 97 per cent to continue their action until the last two jobs are saved.

Today was the fifth day of a 10-day strike, and hundreds attended a rally at which Mr Corbyn and other MPs voiced support for the strikers.

Mr Corbyn told the rally: “We have won 45 jobs back but there are two more to go.

“Those two have got to be saved as well. We will not stop until every job has been saved,” he said to cheers.

“But in winning this campaign for those jobs you will stop the university going after the cleaners, the catering workers, the contractors and all the other workers in the university.

“You will also be bringing a message to the university and the further education system across the country that when the Tory government, as they will, comes after working-class jobs and living standards with a new phase of austerity, we are here, we are ready and we are fighting back.”

The rally took place the day before school A-level results are due to be released and the strike will disrupt the university’s clearances and admissions process.

Other speakers at the rally included UCU president Vicky Blake, general secretary Jo Grady, University of Liverpool Guild of Students deputy president Chloe Field, MP for Liverpool Riverside Kim Johnson and MP for Liverpool West Derby Ian Byrne.

The UCU action at Liverpool has included a call for a worldwide boycott of the university, a three-week strike in May and a marking and assessment boycott.