Healthcare campaigners boarded public transport to Hackney as part of a protest at the moving of caesarean sections for Redbridge women to the area.

For two months, until mid-December, Homerton Hospital is where women due to have a caesarean will have to go to for the procedure.

As the Recorder reported in October, Barking Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust has also capped the number of births at both King George Hospital, Barley Lane, Goodmayes and Queen’s Hospital, Romford, in an effort to protect “safe capacity” at the two maternity wards.

Campaigner and Labour councillor Andy Walker said: “By the time you’ve travelled to the station it can take an hour or more to get to Homerton.”

Speaking of the decision to move caesarians he said: “It had to be done for safety reasons but we need them back. If you can’t ensure safety of women at Queen’s and King George, questions will be asked.”

Cllr Walker also said the long-running campaign to keep the A&E and labour ward at King George open would not end “until the wards close”.