Hundreds of civil servants attended a rally in London

The strike forced museums to close and disrupted jobcentres, driving tests, benefit offices and Customs.

It was organised by the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) and involved 160 government departments and agencies.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka spoke in London on Friday afternoon.

He was joined at a rally in London by union leaders including Dave Prentis of Unison, Andy Gilchrist of the Fire Brigades Union, and Bob Crow of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union.

The PCS Union estimated up to 200,000 civil servants walked out of work on Friday.

Around 1,200 workers attended a protest march in London, which ended in a rally at Westminster Cathedral Hall.

But Chancellor Gordon Brown said the protest would not affect the government's decision, saying he would not be diverted from the planned changes.

Services closed due to the industrial action included the British Museum, the Science Museum and the British Library reading rooms.

The people on strike are not faceless bureaucrats or your bowler-hatted Sir Humphreys Mark Serwotka Q&A Civil service dispute

The PCS union also estimated some 90% of Inland Revenue staff in Northern Ireland to be on strike, while only eight out of 140 of the staff in the Department for Work and Pensions call centre in Liverpool turned up for work.

Elsewhere, driving examiners and staff for the Royal Parks also joined in on the strike.

Mr Serwotka said: "The strike has demonstrated the strength of feeling among civil servants who are prepared to stand up in defence of public services.

"We hope that the government will take note and begin to listen. The course on which the government are embarking will damage the very services they have sought to improve."

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis told the London rally: "It's a nonsense to say you want to provide better and more efficient public services and then wield an axe to thousands of jobs, demoralising staff, cutting services an hitting local economies.

"This strategy is naive, ill conceived and should be reversed."

'Decimate services'

Mr Serwotka said earlier: "Hundreds of thousands of members are today taking a stand against arbitrary cuts which will decimate services we all rely on from the cradle to the grave.

"The people on strike today are not faceless bureaucrats or your bowler-hatted Sir Humphreys but people, who collect the taxes to build hospitals and schools, get the unemployed in to work and protect our shores from illegal contraband."

Former Labour MP Tony Benn was among the 1,200 who marched in London

In September it was announced that a total of 37 social security offices and jobcentres across the UK would close in the first wave of plans to shed civil service jobs.

The number of civil servants in Britain rose to more than 520,000 in April.

'Messages of support'

Chancellor Gordon Brown issued a defiant statement about the strike, saying the action would not affect the government's "determination" to make savings in order to increase investment in healthcare, education, transport and the fight against crime.

"Our decisions mean more police, more teachers, more doctors and more nurses," he said.

"We will provide help with information, relocation and retraining to help staff move into frontline work within the public sector, but we will not be diverted from these necessary changes so that we can make this essential investment."

Liberal Democrat spokesman Paul Holmes warned cutting staff could lead to more drugs and arms smuggling, more tax cheating, less help for jobseekers and an "even worse shambles" at the Child Support Agency.

A PCS spokesman said so far the union had received many messages of support from the public and other trade unions, but added complaints were also to be expected.