Actresses Maxine Peake and Julie Hesmondhalgh support Manchester anti-austerity protests

Silk actress Maxine Peake and former Coronation Street star Julie Hesmondhalgh are calling on people to join them at demonstrations in October

Actresses Maxine Peake and Julie Hesmondhalgh are planning to join anti-austerity protests at October's Conservative Party conference in Manchester.

About 200 people attended a public meeting on Tuesday to organise protests and rallies.

The People's Assembly is holding a national "week of action" from 3 October to 7 October.

Ms Peake said the government needed to change its anti-austerity strategy.

More than 35,000 people marched through central Manchester protesting against government cuts at the Conservative conference in 2011.

'Standing up to cuts'

The party also held its autumn conference in the city in 2013.

Protesters are planning a 2015 demonstration to "make our voices heard".

Singer Charlotte Church and comedian Frankie Boyle are also expected to attend.

Ms Peake said: "We're standing up to the cuts. We're standing up to austerity. We're telling the Tory government 'You can't keep doing this to us'.

"I believe the majority of this country does not want these cuts and this mindless consistent bullying of the weak and the vulnerable."

About 200 people attended a meeting at Central Hall, Manchester on Tuesday night

The actress, who starred in BBC legal drama Silk and Channel 4's Shameless, called on people to join the protest.

She said: "The struggle is never over. We can't sit back. They have to listen to us. I'm quite astounded they have got the cheek to have the party conference in a city which is really suffering from their cuts. Not just the city, but the surrounding north.

"What happened to the Northern Powerhouse that Mr Osborne promised us? It isn't there. North of Watford is suffering. Rural communities are really being beaten down."

Ms Peake added: "Austerity doesn't work and it doesn't have to be that way. We have to get this message to the people of this country."