A poverty campaigner has warned that people in the UK are going to starve as food and energy prices soar in the weeks ahead.
Jack Monroe, who has been campaigning on poverty in the UK for more than a decade says the situation is worse now than ever before.
The cost of living rose by 5.4% in the 12 months to December – the highest Consumer Price Index rate in 30 years.
Jack says some everyday food items have increased in price by 344% in a year.
And six million of us face fuel poverty this spring as bills get set to increase by another 50%.
Council tax bills could go up by as much as 6% this April while National Insurance will go up by 1.25%.
A recent report by The Resolution Foundation predicts households will be on average £1,200 a year worse off from this year.
Foodbanks are already handing out 32 meals a minute.
“People will die of starvation,” Jack told the Sunday People.
“An elderly man got in touch with me to say he went to bed eating a teaspoon of toothpaste to stave off his hunger, just to feel like he had something in his mouth.
“He was just drinking pints of water to try and fill himself up.
“There is another woman who contacted me to say she hasn’t eaten for six days. People are literally starving.
“The only thing that really seems to have changed in the past ten years is that queues for food banks are getting longer, prices are getting higher and the number of people who are destitute is rising – the situation is getting worse and worse and worse.
“Food poverty used to be an abstract concept to a lot of people. Now it has ceased to be something that affects only a handful of people, but is the reality of life for millions.
“The cost of living has become extortionate, that’s the only thing that has changed in the past ten years.”
Jack added: “How can ministers pretend to be appalled by this when they’ve systematically removed the entire construct of a social safety net over the last ten years?
“It’s like going up to a kid in the playground, punching them and stealing their lunch money, then being surprised that they haven’t got any lunch."
Jack repeated a shopping trip she did for the Sunday People ten years ago, showing how she fed her and her son Jonny for just £10.
The price of her basket of basic food items, which included bread, jam and tinned soup, has increased by 74 per cent from £10 to £17.11.
Jack says: “I don’t know how families will survive today with this increase.”
Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Jonathan Ashworth, said: "After years of the Tories, foodbank use has exploded and more children are growing up in poverty.
"Rocketing heating bills, price rises and cuts to help like Universal Credit will hit struggling families even harder.
“Instead of trying to save the skin of Boris Johnson, Tory MPs should be implementing a cut in VAT on fuel bills and more help with heating bills to support families.”
Jack said this time last year, the cheapest pasta in her local supermarket (one of the Big Four), was 29p for 500g. Today, the cheapest pasta is 70p for 500g.
This time last year, the cheapest rice at the same supermarket was 45p for a kilogram bag. Today it’s £1 for 500g.
Curry sauce was 30p, now it’s 89p.
A bag of small apples was 59p, it’s now 89p - and the apples are smaller.
Jack said: "For as long as I can remember, my local supermarket had more than 400 items in their value range, now it’s just 87.
"And the boss of Iceland admits it is losing customers not to competitors, but to foodbanks and to hunger.
"That is a phenomenally terrifying thing when even the budget supermarkets are too expensive.
"More than anything, the Government needs to listen and be held to account."
