'Lee Anderson MP demonises the poor whilst eating meals we subsidise for him, living in a home we heat for him & paying for the journeys he makes'
Tory Deputy Chair Lee Anderson has once again made appalling comments about families struggling in poverty, this time claiming that some are “abusing” food banks because they also eat out in McDonald’s.
Speaking during a Westminster Hall debate on tackling poverty, Anderson, who previously said that people in the UK use food banks because they “cannot cook properly” and “cannot budget”, told MPs: “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.
“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.
“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 – we should target the food banks.”
The MP for Ashfield was condemned online for his comments, with Nazir Afzal tweeting: “The only time you should look down on people is when you’re offering to help them up
“Here Lee Anderson MP demonises the poor whilst eating meals we subsidise for him, living in a home we heat for him & paying for the journeys he makes
“Shameless.”
Byline Times’ Adam Bienkov tweeted in response to the video: “Conservative Deputy Chairman Lee Anderson says one family in his local constituency who regularly uses his local food bank, he also sees in McDonalds “two or three times a week.”
“How is this even possible? Does he have them under surveillance?”
What Tory MPs like Anderson and the government want to do, is to falsely portray poverty as resulting from ‘individual character flaws’ and ‘poor choices’, as it acts as a deflection strategy by the government and others in a bid to absolve themselves of responsibility for their policies that have pushed millions into destitution.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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