Desperate families in the North East are being forced to go without fridge-freezers and are showering in sports centres as bills continue to soar.
Anna Turley, chair of the North East Child Poverty Commission, also told how foodbanks in the region were being "overwhelmed" by the level of demand.
Her comments come just days after newly published statistics revealed the North East was the only region to see an increase in child poverty in the last year, with Newcastle and Gateshead seeing the biggest rises of any parts of the UK since 2014.
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Ms Turley, speaking to the Northern Agenda podcast, warned that "with the rising cost of living, it's only going to get worse".
"The trajectory is really bad and we're not seeing anything being discussed or debated that's actually going to help tackle this", she said.
The former Redcar MP hit out at the Tory leadership hopefuls vying to replace Boris Johnson, asking why conversations were focused on "trans rights and the Rwanda policy" while there are "parents unable to put food on the table".
She said: "We've had families come to us asking, 'is it okay to put your fridge and your freezer on for an hour a day?', because they can't afford to keep it on.
Hear the full interview with Anna Turley on The Northern Agenda podcast
"We talk to sports centres where families are coming in to have showers because they don't want to have a shower at home because of the costs.
"This is a crisis, families are desperate. Foodbanks are overwhelmed, we've got baby banks supporting parents with young babies who are desperate for support.
"This for me should be the biggest priority, the biggest issue on the radar for anyone who wants to be prime minister of this country."
Ms Turley also took aim at the Government's levelling up agenda, saying it did not go far address to address many of the issues facing the region.
"The Levelling Up White Paper didn't even mention child poverty", she said.
"The first half of the paper is actually a very good analysis of the problems and the structural inequality in this country, where it falls desperately short is on any kind of solutions."
Ms Turley, who lost her seat to Tory Jacob Young in 2019, said she would like to see local MPs pushing more on child poverty.
Asked if she would consider another run at Westminster herself, she said: "I definitely want to see Redcar go red.
"I don't know if that's me, we'll see. There's plenty of time yet."
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