And now we go to the chancellor of the exchequer and MP for Goldalming and Ash, Jeremy Hunt who writes this on his website:

Food Insecurity

This is a serious issue, with some of the country’s poorest families struggling to afford to feed themselves and it is vital to do everything possible to help people with the cost of living. Ministers are working hard to improve competition to help producers and retails offer the best prices and there is a range of policies to promote a growing, sustainable food and farming sector and keep prices down. The Government is also working to promote transparency and openness in global markets.

Food banks provide an incredibly valuable service, and I would like to pay tribute to the hardworking volunteers involved. People visit them for a variety of reasons and it is of course highly undesirable that anybody should be in a position where they feel the need to do so.

The welfare system supports millions of people who are on low incomes or unemployed, so nobody has to struggle to meet their basic needs, but I believe that the surest route out of poverty is work. The Government is dedicated to building an economy that works for everyone, and has overseen falls in unemployment, record numbers of jobs, pay cheques rising faster than inflation and income tax cut so that working people keep more of what they earn.

I look forward to this record continuing, and especially welcome the creation of a National Living Wage that is giving two and a half million people a direct pay rise, with those previously on the Minimum Wage seeing their pay rise by over a third.

I searched this out after another busy afternoon at our food bank here in Melchester after having heard Hunt speak of his ambition to scrap National Insurance altogether. Given the levels of food poverty here in Melchester and all round the country, including his leafy, affluent constituency, his chutzpah is breathtaking.

The Guardian describes NI as follows: ‘As its name suggests, national insurance was introduced originally as a state scheme to protect workers against unemployment or being unable to work because of illness. It was first introduced in 1911 and expanded in 1946 to include more workers.” But it isn’t ringfenced. In 2022/23, £41.8 billion was paid from the fund to the NHS. NI, in effect, pays for the welfare state which I would argue is something we should be proud of. Hunt clearly feels differently.

This week at the food bank, I helped people from all walks of life, some who were sick, some who were old and retired, some who were unemployed and some who were in work. These are the people who rely most on the welfare state that Hunt, and the more rabid elements of the Tory party, wants to axe. The only thing we can commend Hunt for is his rare honesty. His ambition to take an axe to the welfare state could not be more clear.

What I don’t want is Hunt’s “tribute” to the people he refers to as “hardworking volunteers” at food banks. If he, or any of his low life Tory colleagues, turned up at our food bank to patronise me, I’m afraid I might not be responsible for my actions. I certainly wouldn’t pose and gurn in a photo to be posted on his website. He’s a total shit who is making poverty worse and planning to extend it to many more people, including pensioners who would likely have to pick up the shortfall in government income if NI goes by paying more tax.

This blog has become more political because politicians like Hunt have politicised it. Apart from a few years in the Johnson years, Hunt has spent most of the last 14 years at the top table. Along with others, he is directly responsible for the explosion of food poverty and a few weasel words can’t alter that simple fact. And the broken people we see every single week bear witness to the cruelty of Hunt and his colleagues.

There is some ‘job satisfaction’ in what we as volunteers do for the community, but it’s more than outweighed by having the knowledge that food poverty exists because of political choices made by people like Hunt.

Finally, let us never forget that Hunt is a multimillionaire in his own right. Not as wealthy as Rishi Sunak but seriously rich nonetheless. Only a few years ago, he ‘forgot’ to declare seven luxury apartments he bought and in the last few years has splashed out £100,000 of his own money in order to save his seat at the next election. Just like Rishi Sunak retaining his US ‘green card’ and his wife clinging on to her non dom status. All the while, hungry and desperate people are knocking on the doors of food banks every single day.

I was mentally drained again after yesterday’s session, probably because I think way too much about things. Sometimes I wonder how much more I can take of it – sorry, that reads SO badly – but for as long as there are people like Jeremy Hunt trampling all over the poor, the weak and the vulnerable, I reckon I’ll be there.