Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Hard to stomach
David Cameron reveals he spent part of his lockdown helping at a foodbank.. but fails to mention that under his Government the number of desperate foodbank users soared by 1,854%
DAVID Cameron has been accused of having “brass neck” for talking proudly about how volunteering at a foodbank had been “great to do”.
Critics were enraged that the former Prime Minister, who presided over the largest increase in foodbanks in British history, had the cheek to refer to it “like it’s a nice day out”.
Asked about lockdown, Mr Cameron said: “My wife was battling hard to save and promote her fashion business, I was working less than that.
“I worked for the Chipping Norton foodbank actually one or two days a week, which was great to do something to help people who were isolated and stuck at home.” Labour’s deputy leader
Angela Rayner said of his Times Radio interview : “David Cameron talks about visiting a foodbank like it’s a nice day out. In one of the richest countries in the world, people are reliant on foodbanks because of the political choices he made.
“As the architect of austerity, I can’t believe he had the brass neck.”
When Cameron left office in 2016, foodbank usage had increased by 1,854% since he became Prime Minister in 2010.
Experts at Oxford University directly
linked the increase to his government’s punishing welfare reforms.
The Oxford study found benefit freezes and welfare changes such as Universal Credit and cuts to disability payments were the cause.
The report’s lead author Rachel Loopstra said at the time: “These are the same groups that have been hit hardest by welfare reform. That these groups are disproportionately needing help from foodbanks is unlikely to be a coincidence.” Quizzed in 2015 about the increase, Mr Cameron said: “That’s partly because of, you know, the difficulties we have faced as a country.
“Also we changed the rules, the previous government didn’t allow Jobcentres to advertise the foodbanks.”
The Trussell Trust said advertising accounted for just 5% of the rise.
Last year a damning report by Human Rights Watch said “tens of thousands of families” used foodbanks as a result of the austerity economics and welfare reforms of Mr Cameron’s government.
Mr Cameron has claimed austerity put the UK in a better position to deal with the pandemic. But experts say brutal cuts left the NHS poorly funded.