The largest food bank in the borough of Westminster is calling for an end to subsidised dining for MPs, with the savings to be redirected towards combating food poverty.
The North Paddington food bank (NPFB) in west London has launched a campaign urging policymakers to use the millions spent on subsidised catering for parliamentarians to tackle food insecurity. It features artwork on billboards and slogan T-shirts produced by the British artist Corbin Shaw to raise public awareness.
The charity has also set up a petition on Change.org, which has garnered more than 70,000 signatures since 1 July, to raise public awareness of the £7m in public money reportedly spent by House of Commons catering services last year.
Thomas Delap, who runs NPFB, said MPs were “fine dining on meal deal prices”, yet “there was no mention of food poverty or food crisis in any manifesto”, despite more than 3 million British people turning to food banks last year.
As part of the campaign, a fake menu based on the one served to MPs has been uploaded to Deliveroo under a listing called “The Houses of Parliament”.
The offering includes “pan-seared lemon sole with buttered English asparagus, watercress, white onion emulsions, poached mussels, oyster leaf, and caper burnt butter” for £10.10; “warm apricot and thyme tart and creamy blue cheese wedge” for £3; and “whipped black bomber cheese mousse, pine nut and pumpkin seed granola, sour grape gel and apple caviar” for £4.50.
Delap said it was galling to think that politicians were “eating like kings” while people were “starving”. It “pissed me off, basically, to think that [MPs are] sat there and we’re on your doorstep supporting nearly 8,000 households, 20,000 people each year”, he added.
The only item actually available to order via Deliveroo is a Shaw-designed T-shirt emblazoned with the slogan “common as muck” on the front and “support your local food bank” on the back. The plates that Shaw has designed as part of the campaign, which read “haven’t you had enough?” and “nationalise scran”, may also become available depending on demand.
Before embarking on the campaign, NPFB sought feedback from its volunteers, staff and users. On finding out details about the subsidised dining available to MPs, “the immediate response is anger and shock”, said Delap.
“If [the MPs] were eating egg mayonnaise sandwiches on the cheap, I don’t think anybody would really care. When you delve into the extravagantness of the food and what’s on offer, that really angers people,” he said.
Shaw, who grew up in Sheffield, has worked with the documentary photographer Martin Parr and had his designs worn by the supermodel Bella Hadid. He said he hoped the message would reverberate beyond London. His artworks will be displayed on billboards nationwide, urging the public to support reallocating funds. “Nobody should have to use a food bank,” he said.
The campaign reflects the resurgence of slogan T-shirts. Shaw said he was inspired by the politically driven work of Sports Banger, perhaps most famous for a T-shirt of the NHS slogan above the Nike swoosh on the front and “not for sale” on the back that was created to show support for junior doctors. He sees slogan tops as accessible activism.
Delap hopes the campaign will spark conversations, and that it will eventually grow “loud enough that [the new government] have no choice but to put policies in place to tackle poverty”.
The plan, he said, was eventually to “work with MPs to see who might want to sit on the right side of this”. For now he wants to see many more sign the petition. “We’re going to need at least a few million signatures for this to be taken seriously,” he added.
