London's 'day of rage' turnout wilts amid rare heatwave

The march was organised by the "Movement for Change", who called for "class war" to "bring down the government" in response to the Grenfell Tower fire.

"We want to send a message on the day of the Queen's speech that we will not accept 'business as usual' from this government," said Antonia Bright, one of the event organisers.

When asked if it was appropriate to use the Grenfell disaster for political gain, Ms Bright told The New Arab: "It's not using a tragedy, it's spelling out what everybody who looked at that knew - that this could be them.

"I'd like for the press not to set up people against each other."

The Movement for Change group is not connected to the Grenfell Tower survivors and does not claim to be representative of their cause.

Prime Minister Theresa May apologised for the government’s response to the Grenfell Tower block fire in parliament on Wednesday.

"The support on the ground for families in the initial hours was not good enough.

	[Click to enlarge] Some of the signs from the march [TNA]

"That was a failure of the state, local and national, to help people when they needed it most.

"As prime minister, I apologise for that failure."

The exact number of protesters involved was difficult to gauge as a large number of people identified themselves as members of the press.

The event's Facebook page calls for protesters to "bring down the government" and "shut down London".

"There will be no peace until this Government is brought down," one post read.

The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, who has previously spoken at events organised by the group, called for peaceful protests.

"Today people may call it a Day of Rage or whatever, they have got the right if they want to be angry, but they haven't got the right to be violent.

"All protest has got to be peaceful and if you want to see what effective protest is all about I tell you follow the lead of Gandhi, not others."