Just over a decade ago, I was in Downing Street planning our country’s pathway through the global financial crisis, completing our long-planned exit from Iraq, anguishing over soldiers’ deaths in Afghanistan and implementing the second stage of the Good Friday agreement on policing in Northern Ireland. I never once imagined that, just over a dozen years on, I would be having to negotiate a supply of 1.5m toilet rolls for my local family centre’s anti-poverty work.
And because 2023 finds mothers reusing nappies, sharing toothbrushes, going without period products, washing their clothes without washing powder and washing themselves and their children without soap, next week fellow helpers and I have set ourselves the task of securing all these essential toiletry products for families in need.
