MPs vote no in food bank reliance debate

MP for East Worthing and Shoreham Tim Loughton and MP for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton Nick Gibb were two of the 296 MPs who voted against the proposal.

The debate was held after a petition to initiate a Parliamentary debate into why there had been a rise in the number of food banks in the UK received 142,000 signatures.

Mr Loughton said: “Food banks perform a very useful community function. They are not just about giving out food.

“It’s great that we have some really dedicated voluntary organisations and churches who give up their time to run them.”

“The Labour party were trying to make it a party political thing about the rise in food bank users being down to government policy.

“It was rather disingenuous seeing as the use of food banks rose ten times under Labour.

“In other European countries, food bank use is rather greater than in the UK. In Germany, six million people use food banks and they are a much richer economy than we are.

“We now allow job centres to signpost people to food banks so people in genuine hardship can get the information they need.”

For the full story, see the Herald and Gazette, Thursday, January 2.