A divisive Tory who claimed hard-up foodbank users can't cook or budget has been named as the party's deputy chairman.
Ashfield MP Lee Anderson was handed the post as part of Rishi Sunak's Cabinet reshuffle following the sacking of Tory chairman Nadhim Zahawi over his tax affairs.
The right-wing Brexiteer will serve under new chairman Greg Hands, a London MP who backed Remain, in a sign Mr Sunak is trying to appease hardliners in his party.
The official Tory Twitter account posted: "Welcome Lee Anderson - our new Deputy Chairman of the Conservatives."
Mr Anderson, a former coal miner, tweeted: "Yes it's true. From the Pits to Parliament. Feeling very proud."
It comes just two weeks after Mr Anderson compared the Government to the "band on the Titanic" over its asylum seeker policy, according to a string of leaked WhatsApp messages.
Mr Anderson has repeatedly ranted about struggling Brits relying on foodbanks - and earned the nickname '30p Lee' for his claims about the cost of meals.
He sparked fury last month by claiming foodbank users squander their cash on cigarettes, alcohol, expensive TV subscriptions and holidays.
He then used one of his aides to make the argument that nurses shouldn't be using foodbanks - by claiming his employee earned £30,000 a year and did not need to use a foodbank.
The woman was subjected to a wave of online abuse.
Mr Anderson also rubbished reports that nurses are being forced to rely on foodbanks.
“Anybody earning 30 odd grand a year, which most nurses are, using food banks, then they’ve got something wrong with their own finances," he told TimesRadio last month.
It comes after he stunned MPs with a furious tirade in the Commons last year about how poverty-hit Brits can't cook properly or budget.
He claimed there was "not this massive use for food banks in this country", despite the cost of living pressures clobbering families.
He said people could "cook meals from scratch" for 30p a day instead of relying on foodbanks.
Mr Anderson went on: "I think you will see there is not this massive use for food banks in this country.
"We have got generation after generation who cannot cook properly. They cannot cook a meal from scratch. They cannot budget."
Last year, he decided to boycott the Euros in protest at the England team's decision to "take the knee" in support of anti-racist campaigners.
The sulking MP said: “For the first time in my life I will not be watching my beloved England team whilst they are supporting a political movement whose core principles aim to undermine our very way of life.”
He later said he'd check the score on his phone during the final of the tournament.
And Mr Anderson even got into hot water before he was even elected in 2019 when he was caught getting his mate to pose as an anti-Labour voter during a TV interview.
He appeared to forget he was wearing a microphone when he phoned a pal to set up the door knock while on the campaign trail with veteran reporter Michael Crick.
“Make out you know who I am... you know I’m the candidate, but not a friend, alright," he was heard saying.
During the campaign for the 2019 election, Mr Anderson said "nuisance tenants" should be made to live in tents in a field and pick vegetables.
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner, retweeting the "Titanic" remarks, posted on the social media: "Update: he's been handed a deck chair."
Zarah Sultana, Labour MP for Coventry South, tweeted: "Lee Anderson MP has just been made deputy chair of the Conservative Party.
"He boycotted the England team because they took the knee and said people in poverty 'cannot budget' and should cook 30p meals.
"That sound you can hear? It's the Conservatives scraping the barrel."
