Nottinghamshire Conservative MP Lee Anderson ‘glad’ foodbank comments kicked off debate
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Ashfield’s Conservative MP Lee Anderson says he is “glad” his controversial comments on foodbanks kicked up a fuss and led to a debate. He had claimed some people who use food banks “cannot budget” and “cannot cook properly” during a debate in the Commons.
However responding to backlash Mr Anderson told Times Radio he was not a “nasty Tory” and refused to back down over his comments. He added the Government “can’t keep throwing money at the problem”.
“The point I was trying to make is that I think the the actual food bank usage is is exaggerated,” Mr Anderson said. “The point I was trying to make is that yes, we’ve got lots of food banks.
Read more: Tory MP defends Lee Anderson’s foodbank comments
“But actually, if we get to the real nub of the problem in a lot of cases, then there are generations of people out there that simply haven’t got the skills to to budget properly and to go shopping and do a proper weekly shop like we used to back in the day, and use of fresh ingredients to make nutritious meals.
“That’s the point I’m making and I’m so glad it’s caused all this fuss because it brings that debate out.”
Asked if people needed education more than food, he said: “Obviously people need food. That’s a ridiculous question… What I’m saying is you can’t just keep throwing money at a problem, eventually, you’ve got to try and get to the root cause of the problem.”
In the Commons on Wednesday, May 11 Mr Anderson had said: “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.”
The comments prompted widespread backlash. Fellow Conservative MP and leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, Ben Bradley, sought to defend him.
Also speaking to Nottinghamshire Live Mr Bradley, who represents Mansfield, said: “People take Lee’s comments about a small group of people, and there is a cycle, he is absolutely right, about a small number, or a large number really, but a minority, of families and generations of poor education, poor basic skills around cooking and budgeting, if you don’t know as a parent how to do things and you find that cycle of poverty and it is important to break into that at some stage with the kind of education Lee is talking about.”