Tory MP becomes furious after claiming people only use food banks because they ‘can’t cook’

A Tory MP received a furious response today after suggesting struggling Britons use food banks only because they “cannot cook from scratch” and “cannot budget”.

Ashfield MP Lee Anderson caused a stir for claiming there was ‘not such massive use for food banks’ in Britain.

He also offered an invitation to opposition MPs to visit a scheme in his own constituency that represented “a real food bank” and allowed people to “make a meal for about 30 cents a day.”

Mr Anderson, a former Labor councilor who defected to the Conservatives ahead of his election to parliament in 2019, immediately faced anger in the House of Commons.

He was berated for his “brutal and cruel” comments as Britons across the country face a cost of living crisis due to rising prices.

Anderson, who earns £84,144 a year as an MP, sparked the spat when he spoke in a House debate over the Queen’s speech.

Addressing MPs on the opposition benches, he urged them to “come to Ashfield and spend a day working with me in my food bank and see the brilliant plan we’ve put in place where people who come now for a food package, have to register for a budgeting course and a cooking course’.

“What we do in the food bank, we show them how to cook cheaply and nutritiously on a budget,” he added.

‘We can make a meal for about 30 pence a day. And this is cooking from scratch.”

Labor MP Alex Cunningham intervened to ask Mr Anderson if he felt it was ‘necessary to have food banks in 21st century Britain’.

Mr Anderson replied: ‘He makes a good point and this is exactly my point.

“So I personally invite you to come to Ashfield, look at our food bank, how it works and I think you’ll see first hand that there’s not such massive use for food banks in this country.

“But generation after generation that can’t cook well, they can’t cook from scratch. They cannot budget. The challenge is there.

‘Come on. I offer everyone.’

Noting the reaction of other MPs to his comments, Mr Anderson added: ‘You sit there with a glassy expression on your face and it looks like I’ve landed from another planet.

“Come, come to Ashfield, come next week, come the week after, come to a real food bank that really makes a difference in people’s lives.”

The charity Trussell Trust operates more than 1,400 food bank centers in the UK.

There are also an estimated 1,200 independent food banks, in addition to those run by the Trussell Trust, the Salvation Army and those in schools.

In a direct response to Mr Anderson’s comments in the House of Commons, Joanna Cherry of the SNP said: ‘We all have food banks in our constituency.

“We don’t really need to visit his, for we know full well that there is a need.

“But the requirement for them isn’t because people don’t know how to cook, it’s because we have poverty in this country on a scale that should be ashamed of its government.”

Karen Buck, Labor Secretary of State for Shadow Work and Pensions, said: ‘In the world where people actually live, we now hear daily stories of families running out of food and others unable to turn on their ovens for fear of rising energy bills.

“The idea that the problem is cooking skills and not 12 years of government decisions pushing people into extreme poverty is incredible.

“Out of contact doesn’t even cover it.”

Labor MP Yasmin Qureshi also attacked Anderson’s “astonishing” comments.

She posted on Twitter: ‘A truly amazing comment from someone who represents an area with nearly 30% of children living in poverty.

“Looks like he has no idea what life is like on the ground for so many of his constituents.”

Fellow MP Angela Eagle said Mr Anderson’s comments were “crude and cruel in equal measure.”

But fellow Conservative MP Brendan Clarke-Smith defended his party colleague, insisting that Mr Anderson was “absolutely perfect”.

Mr. Clarke-Smith also highlighted a newspaper article from last year describing how he and Mr. Anderson had previously promoted the efforts of a food bank to show how it was possible to feed a family of five for seven days. for £50.24.

The Sunday Express article quoted Mr Anderson as saying that he had no pretensions to be a ‘great cook’ but that he doesn’t mind ‘a little plodding’.

He added: ‘I was a single parent for about 17 years – I had two boys living with me, so you learn how to cook cheaply, you learn how to cook tasty meals and I enjoyed doing it.

‘This is about tackling food poverty. It’s about people who eat nutritious food.

“It’s also about tackling obesity. If you eat nutritious food, there is a good chance that you will not become overweight.’

Last summer, Mr Anderson refused to watch England’s games at Euro 2020 in protest at the men’s national football team who knelt before the games in an anti-racist stance.

The MP criticized the gesture’s association with the Black Lives Matter political movement.