Tory MP ’30p Lee’ blasts food bank families for going to McDonald’s
Tory MP ’30p Lee’ strikes again at food banks: Lee Anderson claims the same people he sees in McDonald’s ‘two or three times a week’ use charities ‘like a weekly shop’
- The MP was criticized for saying last year that there was no ‘massive use’ of food banks
- Now he has said there is a “culture” of people who are “dependent” on food parcels
Some people “misuse” food banks and use them as a “weekly shop,” Conservative Party deputy chairman Lee Anderson suggested last night.
The prominent Red Wall Tory MP was previously nicknamed ’30p Lee’ by critics after claiming that people could make meals for 30p a day by learning to cook and budget properly.
He made headlines last year after claiming there was no ‘massive use’ of food banks in Britain.
And yesterday he came back to the subject, claiming that he had helped a family that frequently used a food bank while also making regular visits to McDonald’s.
Speaking at a debate in Westminster Hall about tackling poverty and the cost of food, he said: ‘We have this culture now in some of these deprived areas where people are so dependent on food banks that it’s like a weekly shop for them.
Conservative Party deputy leader Lee Anderson MP has spoken out about the ‘culture’ in some of the UK’s most deprived communities due to people’s dependence on food banks
“One particular family that I helped really helped, and they went to the food bank two or three times a week to do their shopping and then, you know, I see them two or three times a week at McDonald’s.
“I think, my goodness, I don’t want to stop the kids from having a treat every once in a while, but it’s all about priorities.”
“If you’re really struggling to make money and you’re going to a food bank two or three times a week, you shouldn’t be getting fast food or takeout every week. You should not.
Food banks are being abused. The voters tell me every day, now they make it up or tell lies or whatever, but they are being abused.
“They are being abused, food banks are being abused by people who don’t need the food banks.”
As other MPs protested, the Ashfield MP added: “You can shake your head all you want.”
Closing the debate, he said he “doesn’t do divisive politics” and likes to debate “sensibly.”
But Labor MP Ian Byrne denounced Anderson for his comments, saying the ‘demonisation’ of those living in poverty is an act of ‘political cowardice’.
Slammed: Lee Anderson was relentlessly mocked last year after claiming that people could make a meal for 30p a day, in a comment that earned him the nickname ’30p Lee’. He is pictured speaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday
He said, “I want to make it clear that the catastrophe of hunger in our communities is the result of political choices made by this government.”
He said the rise in food inflation was the highest since the 1970s, adding: “Demonizing people in food poverty is an act of political cowardice.”
Anderson was appointed last month as a deputy to former Commerce Secretary Greg Hands, who replaced Nadhim Zahawi as Tory chairman.