“Shame on them,” said Mish Rahman, a member of Labour’s National Executive Committee who spoke at the protest.

“Today, this dictator prime minister watered down the ministerial code. We have gone from being proto-fascists and rapidly accelerating towards total dictatorship. We can no longer accept this. »

Earlier today, amendments to the Ministerial Code, which outlines the standards of conduct expected of government ministers, were published.

The code now says that ministers will no longer always be forced to resign if they violate it. Lesser penalties may be ordered instead.

Speaking to openDemocracy about today’s protest, Luis Eduardo Veintimilla, who works as a cleaner in a government building, and his wife, Stephanie Veintimilla, expressed their “disgust”.

At the height of the pandemic, Veintimilla did not receive adequate PPE. He caught COVID-19, as did his asthmatic wife. In addition to that, “it was complicated for him to be paid”.

“We are people and we have rights. [We] deserve to be respected,” they said.

Zack Polanski, a Green Party Assemblyman in London, also spoke at the protest. “It’s so much more important than party politics. This is basically human decency,” he said.

“These are people who are vulnerable, underpaid, who don’t feel like they’re represented or heard, who aren’t seen or heard, who are opposed to the powerful, who hold the wealth, who hold the levers of power, and have shown themselves to be corrupt.

“We have an integrity crisis, they cannot be trusted.

“But I mean this, the workers are not seen and they are not heard. We see you and we hear you.