Tory MP Who Said Foodbank Users 'Can't Budget' Appointed Deputy Party Chairman

Rishi Sunak has appointed a Tory MP who claimed nurses using food banks had “something wrong” with their ability budget as deputy chairman of the Conservative Party.

Lee Anderson’s promotion was announced on Tuesday, as the prime minister conducted a mini-reshuffle of his top team.

The Ashfield MP — who just last month compared Sunak’s government to the “band on the Titanic” — will work under new party chairman Greg Hands.

Anderson has repeatedly clashed with critics over whether food banks are necessary amid the cost of living crisis.

Last year he told parliament a lot of people only use food banks because they “can’t cook a meal from scratch” and “cannot budget”.

He dismissed reports that nurses, who have been taking strike action over pay, needed help with meals.

“Anybody earning 30 odd grand a year, which most nurses are, using food banks, then they’ve got something wrong with their own finances,” he said.

Anderson was also accused of using a junior member of his staff as a “political football” after he tweeted about her financial situation.

The MP — whose basic salary is £84,144 — shared a photograph of a woman alongside the caption: “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 and does not need to use a food bank. Katy makes my point really well.”

A spokesperson for the Royal College of Nursing told HuffPost UK at the time his comment showed “a total disconnect with the reality” faced by NHS staff.

It followed a survey that found a quarter of hospitals had set up food banks for nurses as the cost of living crisis led to an “exodus” of NHS staff to better-paid jobs in supermarkets and hospitality.

The poll of 150 hospital chief executives, by NHS Providers, revealed 27 per cent had set up food banks to support staff.

Anderson is a former coal miner who was a Labour councillor in Ashfield before he defected to the Conservative Party in 2018 and went on to serve as a Tory councillor in Mansfield. 

During the 2019 general election campaign, Anderson was filmed getting a friend to pose as an anti-Labour voter.