A Conservative MP has claimed that the UK will only have a big problem when pub chain Wetherspoons is empty. In a speech to the party's conference in Birmingham, Lee Anderson also questioned the existence of food poverty and criticised parents whose children go hungry.
Speaking to young Tories, the MP for Ashfield touched on a number of other topics including people who run food banks and the BBC licence fee. The Mirror reported that the ex-Labour councillor said: "Go in any Wetherspoons, that's the barometer of how this country is doing, when Wetherspoons is empty we've got a big problem."
Mr Anderson was critical of the media, who he accused of fearmongering. He told the audience: "Whenever we put the TV on people are telling us how poor we are."
JD Wetherspoon put 32 of its pubs up for sale last week. The chain had previously warned that it could face losses of £32 million as a result of rising staff wages and repairs.
The backbencher described the UK's benefits system as "generous" and defended previous remarks he has made in Parliament about food banks. He told the House of Commons in May that people could "cook meals from scratch" for "30p a day".
Turning his attention to people who set up food banks, he said: "I've got a big bee in my bonnet about food poverty. I'm a big believer that we do need food banks, but not to the degree we've got them. Every do gooder is starting these little projects to make themselves feel good."
He told the gathering he had worked with a local chef in his Ashfield constituency to make 172 meals after spending £50 in a supermarket. He said: "'30p Lee' they named me. That stuck but in a good sort of way, it got people talking about food poverty."
Mr Anderson said young people are not being taught properly about basic budgeting. He told his audience: "If I got home economics bought back I'd be a very happy man."
And he took aim at parents who allow their kids to go hungry. He said: "I'll take no lectures from the left. How can we have food poverty when we've got an obesity crisis?"
He continued: "We're in a world where the only input they have is having the children, as soon as they're born they're someone else's responsibility... Unfortunately we've got some parents who just don't look after their children, I'm not ashamed to say that."
He recounted stealing eggs from birds nests as a child, and recounted seeing one friend blowing the yolk out to eat it. "When people bang on about kids being hungry, I've seen that poverty, I grew up around that poverty," Mr Anderson said.
"I saw my mum and dad struggle on a Sunday night, they'd put their money on the table, then they'd be skint for the week. That's real poverty."
He said that at the time he bought his first home in 1990 people would work 12 hour days, seven days a week and take on second jobs in order to get on the housing ladder.
"I'm sorry, but you can't have everything," the Tory MP said. "If you want that property there are certain sacrifices you have to make to get it."
He also rallied against the BBC, telling his audience he doesn't watch it anymore and has ripped up his TV licence. Urging others to do the same, he said: "When they come knocking on your door, send them off."
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