Tory MP Lee Anderson has said foodbank users are short of cash because they fritter money on cigarettes, alcohol, expensive TV subscriptions and holidays.
The Ashfield MP, who previously ranted that poor Brits can't budget or "cook properly", said hard-pressed Brits could save cash by ditching treats as households face rising energy bills and double-digit inflation.
It comes after Mr Anderson faced criticism for publishing salary details of one of his aides to further his argument, triggering a wave of online abuse towards the young woman.
But he doubled down on his stance in an interview with the Telegraph, saying there was a "whole industry" behind foodbanks which leaves people reliant on help.
Mr Anderson, who used to volunteer with Citizens Advice, said: "In a lot of cases these people were just wasting money on fags and booze and non essentials, non priority debts, Sky TV or Virgin Media. There was a lot of money they could save.
"There were takeaways, holidays. In this world, you don't have the automatic right to have all the nice things in life.
"You have to work for them and you have to pay for them."
The former miner added: “Yes, there is a need for food banks for some people who fall on hard times all of a sudden. But there’s a whole industry now. In my opinion this is a scandal.
“We should be teaching a man to fish. If we get back to the basics, get people to help themselves, give them a hand up rather than a hand out, this country would be even better.”
Lib Dem deputy leader Daisy Cooper branded his comments "disgusting" and said Mr Anderson should be kicked out of the party.
"Food banks aren’t an industry - they’re the direct result of industrial scale neglect by this Conservative government," she said.
"Lee Anderson should be ashamed of himself and apologise immediately to all those who rely on food banks to put food on the table for their families.
"The time has surely come for Lee Anderson to lose the Conservative whip. Sadly the Conservative party is too weak and doesn't care enough about food poverty to actually do anything about these kind of comments from their own MPs."
It comes as Tory former Cabinet Minister Simon Clarke doubled down on his claim that nurses using foodbanks of not budgeting properly.
Mr Clarke, who earns £84,000 a year as an MP, was branded "disgusting, heartless and dangerously out of touch" by the Royal College of Nursing.
Asked if he regretted the comments on Sunday, he told BBC Politics North: "What I said was that, if you are earning the average nurses wage, which is £35,000 a year according not to me but to the Royal College of Nursing, if you are earning that salary then I do not believe that that is a salary at which, routinely, you should need to use a food bank, and I think that is an important thing to say.
"Obviously the median salary in this country is about £28,000".
Asked if he understood that people might be offended, he added: "I don't think they would, because the reality is, there's a lot of people in my constituency who obviously earn a fraction of £35,000 and I was saying if you're earning £35,000 then you oughtn't to routinely need to use a food bank.
"I think that is important comment to make because actually, well this debate has been distorted."
Shadow Minister Chi Onwurah challenged him over the comments.
"You are still a supporter of Liz Truss' 'kamiKwasi' budget which crashed the UK economy, made everybody poorer, send billions of pounds which could have gone to an industrial strategy or to the NHS which we lost out as a [concern] of that," the Newcastle upon Tyne Central MP said.
"And to be giving nurses budgeting advice is absolute, is insulting and is absolutely ridiculous."
