My aide is on £30k and she doesn’t use food bank, says MP

A TORY MP has used his parliamentary aide as an example of how to handle the cost of living crisis.

Lee Anderson, who has claimed that poor people use food banks because they “can’t budget”, posted details of Katy Colthup’s salary and expenses on Twitter to defend his views.

Mr Anderson, who accompanied his tweet with a picture of the aide at her desk, wrote: “Katy works for me. She is single and earns less than 30k, rents a room for £775pcm in central London, has student debt, £120 a month on travelling to work, saves money every month, goes on foreign holidays & does not need to use a foodbank. Katy makes my point really well.”

Dawn Butler, the Labour MP, said the tweet was “a form of bullying and harassment”, and urged the Ashfield MP to delete his message. She said that she would be reporting him to the Commons authorities.

Earlier, Mr Anderson defended fellow Tory MP Simon Clarke after he questioned why nurses earning £35,000 a year are using food banks.

The former levelling up secretary told nurses “something is wrong with your budgeting” if they are relying on handouts.

Katy Colthup’s salary details and expenses were shared by her boss Lee Anderson