Pampered MPs and Lords have binned 2.6million dinners as ordinary people struggle to feed their families.
Mounds of heavily subsidised grub went uneaten in a waste scandal that has enraged food poverty groups.
Stomach-churning figures show that over six years the dumped food would fill 153 eight-ton skips. It weighed 1.23million kilos – or 1,230 tons.
And it was binned while MPs were able to tuck in to cut-price nosh as they enjoy salaries of £82,000 – an 11% pay hike this year – and free heating on their second homes.
In contrast, more than two million hard-up adults admit often going without food for an entire day.
Millions more face below-inflation pay rises – and fuel bills are heading towards a horrifying £5,000 a year
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The Food Foundation revealed that between January and April, 7.3million households were cutting back or skipping meals – a rise of 57%. And that makes Parliament’s food waste even more insulting.
Writing for the Sunday Mirror today, poverty campaigner Jack Monroe accuses Parliament of clear contempt for ordinary people.
The level of waste was revealed after a Freedom of Information request by the Sunday Mirror.
Last year Commons officials recorded 148,230kg of food waste, down from 152,688kg in 2020, and 258,869kg in 2019.
Waste in the three previous years totalled 677,510kg. It all equates to 2.6million meals which, had they sold at a typical £8, would have been worth £20.8million.
While the waste bins filled up, taxpayers gave a record £9.1million to subsidise food and drink in the Commons dining rooms in 2020-21 – up from £4.6million a year earlier. Yet Westminster food sales for the period were only £827,000.
MPs can feast on sirloin steak and chips – slathered in bearnaise sauce – for under £12.
Dishes like salmon tagliatelle and beer-battered cod and chips cost less than £6.50, a curry is £4 and a jacket potato just 85p.
Yet less than a mile away, a permanent food bank in Westminster – where 41% of children live in poverty – is run by the Trussell Trust charity.
Last year it distributed 2.1million emergency food parcels via food banks, including 832,000 for children.
PM Boris Johnson vowed to tackle food waste more than a decade ago.
Speaking as Mayor of London in 2011, he said: “Throwing away mountains of perfectly edible food is crazy when all Londoners are feeling the pinch. I want to do all I can to help people to cut waste, save cash by doing so and improve our great city. This is why I am determined to cut the amount of food needlessly sent to landfill.”
Lib Dem MP Wera Hobhouse told us: “It is outrageous and astonishing that in a cost-of-living crisis, Parliament is the cause of so much food waste. Officials have a duty to reduce waste and, where possible, donate surplus food to local communities.”
Across Britain, 9.5 million tons of food, worth £19billion, is binned each year, says the Waste and Resources Action Programme.
Much is fit to eat. FareShare, which distributes food to frontline charities, said: “The equivalent of 1.3 billion meals of good-toeat food is wasted annually in the UK.
“We welcome organisations to get in touch with FareShare, to help us get more nutritious surplus food to those who need it most.”
Parliament does not send the waste to food distribution schemes or to landfill, but says the food waste segregated in catering facilities is instead turned into renewable energy. The uneaten food is sent for 'anaerobic digestion' to produce methane gas which is used to generate electricity.
Tim Lang, professor of food policy at City, University of London, warned food poverty in Britain is “getting close to the 1840s”.
He said: “People on low incomes pay a hugely higher proportion of disposable incomes on food.
“People are not used to having to decide between paying the mortgage, fuel, keeping clothes on the kids’ backs, getting them to school in some decent form, feeding them.
“This is a totally new mix. The politics is very, very serious. Basically, we have a problem.”
The scandal is revealed after the Tories opposed Man Utd star Marcus Rashford’s plea for free dinners for kids during Covid – only to backtrack in the face of a furious backlash.
One family of six spoke of their anger at the food waste.
Like many, Vicky and Chris Saynor, both 46, have resorted to buying reduced-price food to get by.
The couple from Cottered, Herts, take home £4,500 a month from Bethnal&Bec, a holiday studio business. It sounds a healthy sum. But more than £2,500 goes on their mortgage and energy bills.
What is left is further squeezed by surging petrol and shopping costs.
Vicky, mum to Poppy, 17, Mylo, 12, Felix, 14, and Willow, 10, said: “We are a middle-income family and are feeling the effects of inflation in a huge way. I’m utterly appalled. They should be channelling wasted food through apps like Olio or Too Good To Go, or partnering with foodbanks and homeless shelters. We are a family of six and in order to keep our food costs as low as possible now rely on Olio for free food.
“I shop in the discounted section, buy frozen veg to keep costs low and also compost all our food waste.”
Vicky’s electricity bill has risen from £25 per week on a smart meter to £120. Their home is among 1.2million heated by oil, which is not protected by the energy cap. A litre of oil rocketed from 20p before the Ukraine war to 95p now.
Vicky added: “We live in a village, so have to drive everywhere, and all our clothes shopping now is second hand. “We are so exposed to the cost-ofliving crisis, it’s frightening.”
Inflation has just burst through the 10% barrier and is projected to hit an alarming 13.3% in October.
The Grocer 33 survey, which tracks 33 goods, says prices are up 20% year on year.
Food in Parliament is run by two separate organisations. A spokesman said: “The House of Commons and House of Lords Catering Services take a number of measures to reduce the amount of food waste from our outlets and produce less food waste than the national average for the catering industry.
“The Sustainable Restaurant Association has rated Parliament’s Catering Services as good practice organisations and were awarded three stars out of three as part of the environmental section in their Food Made Good Scheme.
“Parliament provides a range of catering services to Members, House staff, journalists and a large number of visitors.
"As a workplace this includes staff canteens that are available for people who work in Parliament. The services aren’t directly subsidised, but they unavoidably come at a cost due to the irregular hours that Parliament works. The service has a commitment to continuously seek to reduce costs where possible.”
"Any hot food we cannot use is not donated to food aid providers or charities, because if we are unable to guarantee that food given away is stored and chilled within food safety requirements during its distribution then there is a potential for the food to deteriorate and harmful bacteria to grow.”
