Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Tories try to adapt their food bank message

There was a food bank debate yesterday in the House of Commons. We all know that, but what few people can tell you is what was said. Instead, there is a furious debate raging about whether the Tories were laughing at poor people not having enough money for food, or whether Labour MPs were laughing too. I’ll leave that to other people to tussle over, suffice to say that it wasn’t the most edifying debate I’ve watched, mainly because as with all arguments in Westminster over food banks, both sides were jeering one another and making ugly accusations about each other too.

These accusations tend to boil the problem of food banks down to something very simple and easy: either that Labour wrecked the economy and therefore people need food banks or that the Tories rejoice in cutting people’s benefits so that people need food banks. Neither approach really takes in the complex nature of food bank demand, which I’ve written about for the magazine, the blog and the Telegraph.

Food banks are good things in that they at least help people deal with very bad things and are an organised community response to crises that in some cases have been occurring for years, with families previously at the mercy of social workers or teachers who had a few spare pounds to offer. Because people will always have crises, from suddenly losing their job to a sudden bill, we will probably always need food banks to a greater or lesser extent. But we’d all rather that those bad things didn’t exist in the first place, and in many cases (but not all) government can do something to prevent them. Benefit delay is one of the major reasons, and ministers do need to find a response to the rising number of referrals caused by benefit change (which will include cuts to benefits).

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in