HUNDREDS of firefighters marched on Downing Street today after launching a Fire Brigades Union (FBU) manifesto against cuts and for a future-proofed service.

In speeches at Westminster Central Hall before the demonstration, union leaders and left-wing MPs got successive standing ovations as they urged members to lobby Labour into endorsing the dossier.

Aimed at meeting the challenges of an ageing population, unsafe deregulated building laws and extreme weather events, its 25 demands include an immediate employment of 5,000 extra firefighters and creating a new forum to set policy and standards.

Labour MP John McDonnell vowed to be the first MP to sign up “an absolute pledge” to the manifesto, urging firefighters to name and shame any parliamentary candidate who did not do the same.

“Have you been talking to Starmer?” he quipped, when introduced as a former Labour member, and continued: “Have you been watching the Covid Inquiry?

“It isn’t just the language that offends, what we realise is what a bunch of effing clowns have been running this country for so long.”

He said the FBU needs to be honest with Labour and push for wealth taxes to deal with a “backlog of investment that has to come quick and fast: this is a priority service.”

The longstanding lack of a statutory duty for flooding meant FBU members “are still going out there underequipped and in some instances undertrained. What they have done to our fire service is criminal.”

FBU general secretary Matt Wrack noted the fire service costs not even £50 a week per Briton, yet “we are facing new and emerging risks from an ageing population, from new technologies and above all from the climate crisis and extreme weather events.

“But our message to politicians is: we can do all that and more, but we need the long-term investment to sustain that.”

Speaking to the Morning Star, he said building deregulation had brought fire safety back to the Thatcher era.

“This is most horrifically summed up by the Grenfell Tower disaster that’s still ongoing — there are still thousands of unsafe buildings across the UK,” he said.

“They are trying to paper over the cracks rather than putting right the faults in the buildings, they are asking us to change what we do, which puts our people at risk.”

He said while Labour’s refusal to make spending commitments is “unacceptable to us,” the FBU was not discussing disaffiliating.

FBU president Ian Murray told the meeting:  “We are at an inflexion point in history. The general election is fast approaching, we have faced nearly 14 years of austerity and deregulation — now is our chance to make our case.”

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said the manifesto reflects the service that is “worthy of the dedication, the skill, the bravery” of firefighters, urging members to vote out “the feral pigs that currently govern us.”

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said he hoped the FBU can take heart as the government’s “merry-go-round of incompetence” saw it U-turn on plans to close nearly every ticket office in England.

Merseyside brigade organiser Graeme Jones demanded a promise from the Labour leadership to return to its roots, warning: “Stand with us, not against us, because when you stand against the FBU — we organise.”