MORE than 500 Kent police officers joined colleagues from across the UK on a mass march through London in protest over police pay.

Around 20,000 off-duty British officers descended on Hyde Park at 11.30am on Wednesday to join a protest rally through the city over the Government’s refusal to backdate a 2.5 per cent pay rise to September.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith’s decision in December to effectively lower most UK forces’ pay rise to 1.9 per cent by not backdating it outraged police, and Kent Chief Constable Mike Fuller was one of the first police chief to criticise her actions.

The rally – the first mass demonstration by police in six years - marched from Hyde Park to Millbank, and officers also handed out petitions outside the Home Office, lobbied MPs at the Houses of Parliament and laid wreaths at the National Police Memorial.

Chairman of Kent Police Federation, which represents constables, sergeants, inspectors and chief inspectors in the county, Ian Pointon said: “It has been a fantastic turnout. We brought around 500 officers from Kent, all of them off-duty.

“We all sent a very clear message to not only the Home Secretary but also the Government that they have picked a fight over loose change with the wrong people.

“Something has got to give.

“We will be moving to ballot Federation members over the right to strike next month, and if the Government does nothing, I fear for the worst in that ballot.”