A Tory MP says the UK will only have a "big problem" with the economy when Wetherspoons pubs are empty - and claims children only go hungry because of lazy parents. Lee Anderson made the claims in a searing rant to young Conservative party members, adding that food banks are only set up by "do-gooders" who want to "make themselves feel good."
Anderson also reiterated his claim that families could easily cook homemade meals for just 30p and blasted the UK's "generous" benefits system. Attacking the BBC, he told supporters not to pay their TV licence fees and said that those who want to get on the property ladder should be working seven days a week, the Mirror reports.
The Ashfield MP - who boycotted England's Euro 2020 campaign after players took the knee - claims full football stadiums and packed pubs show that the economic situation is not as dire as experts say. Speaking at the party conference in Birmingham, the 55-year-old 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."
He then accused the media of fear mongering, telling the audience: "Whenever we put the TV on people are telling us how poor we are."
Last week JD Wetherspoon put 32 of its pubs up for sale, after previously warning that it could face loses of £30 million due to rising staff wages and repairs. Mr Anderson defended controversial remarks he made in the House of Commons about food banks in May - when he claimed people could "cook meals from scratch" for "30p a day" instead
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. "'30p Lee' they named me," he said. "That stuck but in a good sort of way, it got people talking about food poverty."
He claimed that young people are missing out on basic budgeting, telling the crowd: "If I got home economics bought back I'd be a very happy man."
Mr Anderson claimed that children go hungry due to the failings of their parents, telling young Conservatives: "I'll take no lectures from the left. How can we have food poverty when we've got an obesity crisis?"
The MP said: "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."
In a wide-ranging speech, he also rallied against the BBC, telling his audience: "I don't watch the BBC, I've ripped my license up." Urging others to do the same, he said: "When they come knocking on your door, send them off."
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