CAMPAIGNERS confronted Chingford and Woodford Green MP Iain Duncan Smith during a protest march over youth unemployment.
They had arranged to meet the MP outside Chingford Church of England School in Cambridge Road, where Mr Duncan Smith was due to meet students for an awards ceremony.
He was questioned over the increase in student tuition fees and cuts to youth services and Education Maintenance Allowances (EMAs).
Organised by Youth fight for Jobs, the campaigners were part of the Jarrow to London protest march which started on October 1, calling for jobs for young people.
John Stephenson, 65, a retired Fleet Street journalist from St John's Road, Walthamstow, said his father was on the original Jarrow March 75 years ago.
He said: “I am in full sympathy for the youth. A lot more resources should be directed towards them.
“The government just isn't doing enough for the kids with all the cuts they are making.
“The future of our country depends on our youth and if we are bringing up a generation that has never known work of course they are going to turn to other things, which we saw during the riots.”
The protesters had marched from the College of North East London in Tottenham, before stopping at Waltham Forest Town Hall and then to Mr Duncan Smith's constituency office in Station Road, Chingford.
Mr Duncan Smith, whose Government department deals with welfare and pension policy, has said that social problems faced by those living in poverty was a major contributor to the riots.
Bob Severn, 27, who grew up in Walthamstow but recently moved to Loughton, said, since the announcement to increase university tuition fees was made, his 17-year-old sister is not sure whether she wants to go to university.
“I think it is leaving a lot of young people disenfranchised. We saw that boil over during the August riots.
“Iain Duncan Smith talks about gangs during the riots as if it is a moral issue but it is an economic one.
“Poverty and desperation are driving people to commit crime.”
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