Lisa Nandy slammed Tory ministers who suggest struggling workers asking for better pay aren’t patriotic, amid a shocking rise in working families using food banks.
Labour’s Shadow Levelling Up Secretary said her ambition was to “put foodbanks out of business” as volunteers revealed nurses and police staff were being referred to the charities to help make ends meet.
The Shadow Levelling Up Secretary visited Blackpool Foodbank, a distribution network supplying around 16,000 meals a week to thousands of families.
CEO Bev Lucas said demand was up 30% compared to last year - much of which was made up of families where both partners are working.
They distribute tinned food to some families because they can’t afford the energy cost of plugging their fridge in with others given “kettle meals” like pot noodles if they don’t have access to a cooker.
Local Parliamentary candidate Chris Webb, who volunteers as a driver for the organisation, said many of his drop offs were primary schools, where teachers would identify families in need.
“Public sector workers, frontline workers, particularly people that a couple of years ago, government ministers were standing on doorsteps applauding and calling them heroes are having to routinely use foodbanks in order to feed their children,” Ms Nandy told this newspaper.
“I think it is outrageous for government ministers to stand in front of the British flag and to talk about being patriots when they’re letting our children and our frontline workers go starving hungry.
“When a hard day’s work doesn’t mean a fair day’s pay any more for most people in Britain, and when they raise concerns about that, they’re told they’re acting against the interests of the country. I think they should be ashamed of themselves.
“You can see what patriotism looks like, it was there in that food bank, and I won’t take any lessons on patriotism from government ministers who think it’s acceptable to treat people who are the backbone of our country like that.”
Labour tonight revealed food prices are rising at 19.2% a year in the UK - 50% faster than elsewhere in the G7, where food inflation averages 12.8%.
It means the cost of a typical family’s food shop is set to be £700 more this year than last year.
The party last night called on Rishi Sunak to take “urgent action” to ease the cost of food - including by cutting business rates for small shops and slashing energy bills for food manufacturers.
Lisa Parkinson, 47, runs a small business in Blackpool making children’s furniture, toys and ‘mud kitchens’ - and is a regular user of the Big Food Truck.
It’s a non-means tested service where struggling families can pay around £13 for a food parcel including frozen items, cupboard goods and fresh vegetables.
When she was diagnosed with breast cancer, just a week before Covid hit, her husband gave up his job in Manchester to help more at home.
“We were ticking along - and then of course the cost of living crisis happened,” she said.
“We thought, hang on a minute. This is not good. We’re working as much as we can, we’re doing everything we can, but we’re still really struggling,” Lisa said.
“It’s helped us so much. It’s just taken a little bit of pressure off.”
Ms Nandy said the different impact inflation has on different parts of the country is often missed in debates on the cost of living.
Speaking to volunteers, she said: “Blackpool is one of the worst affected parts of the country for inflation, because people spend more of their income, whatever limited income they’ve got, on basic essentials.”
Campaigning in a target council seat in Blackpool ahead of next month’s local elections, the response to Ms Nandy on the doorstep was largely positive - but she accepted the mood overall was “quite flat.”
“It’s this sort of feeling that politics isn’t a good lever of change,” Ms Nandy accepted between knocking doors. “It’s not an anti-politics mood, it’s a sort of ‘forget it’ sort of mood. I think that’s the biggest challenge at this election.”
Ms Nandy accused the government of taking a “patronising” approach to their own concept of “Levelling Up”.
“You wander into a place like Blackpool, where you’ve never been before, as a government minister, and you say you can have a small amount of your own money back, so we can restore pride in your place,” she said.
“I’ve never heard anything more absurd in my life. You can see what pride in place looks like, and it’s alive and well in that food bank.”
