PROTESTERS who stormed a City of York Council meeting have hit back after being described as “hooligans” by one council member.

Seven members of York Stop The Cuts disrupted a council budget meeting last week to protest at funding cutbacks which they believe will hit the “poorest and most disadvantaged”.

In a joint statement issued by the protesters, they hit out at comments made by Conservative councillor Ian Gillies.

They said: “If he thinks that a few people standing on a table is hooliganism then he must have led a very sheltered existence.

“The real hooliganism lies in the devastating cuts that his party and the Lib Dems are foisting on the rest of us.”