Tory MP '30p Lee' blasts food bank families for going to McDonald's

Tory MP ’30p Lee’ strikes again on food banks: Lee Anderson claims the same people he sees in McDonald’s ‘two or three times a week’ are using charities ‘like a weekly shop’

• The MP was blasted after last year said there was no ‘massive use’ for food banks
• Now he’s said there is a ‘culture’ of people being ‘dependent’ on food handouts

Some people are ‘abusing’ food banks and using 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 he claimed 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’ for food banks in Britain.

And yesterday he returned to the subject, claiming he had helped a family who frequent used a food bank while also making regular trips to McDonald’s.

He told a Westminster Hall debate on tackling poverty and the cost of food: ‘We have got this culture now in some of these deprived areas where people are so dependent on food banks it is like a weekly shop for them.

Lee Anderson MP, the deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, has hit out at the ‘culture’ in some of the UK’s most deprived communities over people’s reliance of food bank handouts

‘One particular family I was helping, really helping, and they were going to the food bank two or three times a week to get their groceries and then, you know, I see them in McDonald’s two or three times a week.

READ MORE: Moment Tory deputy chairman ’30p Lee’ Anderson clashes with BBC local radio presenter over infamous Mail ‘hot mic’ video in which he was caught asking friend to pose as a regular voter while campaigning

‘I am thinking, my goodness, I don’t want to stop the children going for a treat once in a while but it is all about priorities.

‘If you are really struggling for money and you are going to a food bank two or three times a week, you shouldn’t be going out for fast food, takeaways every week. You shouldn’t be doing that.

‘Food banks are being abused. Constituents tell me every single day, now they are either making it up or telling lies or whatever, but they are abused.

‘They are abused, food banks are 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 Labour MP Ian Byrne blasted Mr Anderson for his remarks, saying the ‘demonisation’ of those in poverty is an act of ‘political cowardice’. 

Slammed: Lee Anderson was ruthlessly mocked last year after claimed people could make a meal for 30p a day, in a remark 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 at its highest rate since the 1970s, adding: ‘Demonisation of people in food poverty is an act of political cowardice.’

Mr Anderson was last month appointed deputy to ex-trade minister Greg Hands, who replaced Nadhim Zahawi as Tory chairman.

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