A floundering Tory Minister has been forced to admit she does not know what research her own department is carrying out on the causes of food bank poverty.
Therese Coffey, the Work and Pensions Secretary, left MPs so shocked by her embarrassing performance at a Commons committee that she was asked if she planned to resign.
The DWP chief came adrift at the Department of Work and Pensions committee during a heated exchange with MPs.
SNP MP Chris Stephens accused her of being “oblivious” to her own policies after Coffey failed to give answers on when a DWP report about the effects of benefit sanctions on food bank would be made public.
The Glasgow South West MP raised the fact that the DWP committed 18 months ago to placing a copy of its evidence-based reviews of food bank use.
He asked the Minister: “We’ve waited patiently. Where is that report?”
Coffey responded: “I’ll have to go back and check. I know there was something we started to do but stopped because of Covid.”
Cluelessly she added: “Defra leads of food poverty, food insecurity.”
It was just one of a series of car-crash answers the cabinet Minister gave to MPs.
Pressed on the publication of other departmental policy by Labour MP Neil Coyle, the Minister responded: “Some internal analysis has been done. I don’t know what the next plans are with that.”
Coyle told the Work and Pensions Secretary it was “really disappointing that you’ve turned up and been unable to answer so many questions”.
She then left MPs aghast by telling them she had complained to her own energy supplier that her household bill is too high but offered no extra support to poorer customers.
Coffey, who earns £149,437 as an MP and Cabinet minister, told MPs: “I don’t pretend in any way to be poor, I’m not trying to suggest that at all.”
“But I did notice very significantly my utility suppliers all of a sudden increased my standing order, anticipating perhaps rises. I’ve had to go back and get them to bring back down my standing order because it’s not in line with my bills.”
She accused energy suppliers of using poor rate-payers “as their cash flow” ahead of the jump to nearly £2,000 per year for the average household.
Suggesting poorer benefit claimants could do the same, she said: “People can ask for that to be reviewed and they can go to Ofgem if they want to make a complaint.”
Coffey said no further support is currently planned for consumers beyond a £200 repayable loan unveiled by chancellor Rishi Sunak last week with a package of other measures adding up to £350 discount on bills.
Speaking after the car-crash evidence session Chris Stephens MP said the Minister “basically did not know what the government or her department is doing.”
He said: “She was oblivious of that fact that her own department has carried out a survey on benefit sanctions and their effect on foodbank use and she couldn’t answer questions on it.”
Stephens added: “The Secretary of State’s embarrassing session would be a shock for those who want to see government ministers held accountable for their policy decisions. When it is published I have no doubt the paper will show that DWP sanction policies are one of the main drivers of foodbank use.”
Stephen Timms, Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, added: “The lack of detail that the Secretary of State was able to give us on what the Government is doing to support the many people currently struggling to get by was hugely disappointing.”
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