Celebrated anti-poverty campaigner Jack Monroe has blasted a Tory MSP for comments about food bank users.
At a Holyrood committee this week, MSPs debated a Bill requiring public bodies to create “good food nation plans”.
Rachael Hamilton, who represents Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire for the Tories, addressed the issue of food banks.
She said: “Earlier on you talked about food banks having cans and dried foods, and I mean this is an area that actually could be opened up to replace those types of foods in terms of how we're supporting people who possibly are less well educated in terms of cooking, and actually getting access to that food."
SNP MSP Alasdair Allan responded by asking Hamilton to reconsider the phrase “less educated”.
She replied: “Can I explain that? Educated in cooking.”
Monroe, a journalist and author who rose to prominence by sharing cost effective recipes when she herself was in poverty, tweeted:
“So Tory MSP Rachael Hamilton claims that people using food banks are ‘less well educated’ about food and cookery. Rachael, I wrote my first bestselling cookery book AS A FOOD BANK USER and have gone on to write six more. How many has she written, can anyone check?”
Allan called on Hamilton to apologise: “Rachael Hamilton’s comments were utterly disgraceful and an insult to thousands of families across Scotland who do everything they can to put food on to the table every day.
“People relying on foodbanks often find innovative ways to make meals go further and it is completely inappropriate for a Tory MSP to suggest that families in poverty are ‘less well-educated’ in how to cook and prepare food.
“Once again, the Tory mask has slipped, and they have shown themselves to be completely out of touch, and frankly indifferent to the very real suffering caused by Tory cuts like the £20 Universal Credit uplift and the Benefit Cap."
“Ms Hamilton must apologise for her appallingly insulting remarks.”
Hamilton said: "I did not mean to cause any offence.
“My phrasing was poor but in the context of the discussion, the point I was making was clear and supported by the representative of the NFUS.
“My point was referencing the 21 responses to the consultation on the Good Food Nation Bill that stated education about food is key to realising the social, economic, environmental, health and well-being benefits that the legislation seeks to achieve."
To sign up to the Daily Record Politics newsletter, click here.
