SCOFFING AT WASTE

FAMILIES GO HUNGRY AS MPs BIN OVER 1.2 MILLION KILOS OF FOOD

- JOHN SIDDLE

• Parliament has sent 2.6m meals to landfill.
• That would fill 153 8-ton builder's skips
• Dishes could have sold for over £20m
• Yet taxpayers are funding cheap nosh

PAMPERED MPs and Lords have binned 2.6million dinners as ordinary people struggle to feed their families.

Mounds of heavily subsidized grub went to landfill in a waste scandal that has enraged food poverty groups. Stomach-churning figures show that over six years the dumped food would fill 153 eight-ton skips. It weighed 1.23million kilos or 1,230 tons.

And it was binned while MPs were able to tuck in to cut-price nosh as they enjoy salaries of £82,000 - an 11% pay hike this year and free heating on their second homes.

In contrast, more than two million hard-up adults admit often going without food for an entire day.

Millions more face below-inflation pay rises and fuel bills are heading towards a horrifying £5,000 a year.

The Food Foundation revealed that between January and April, 7.3million households were cutting back or skipping meals - a rise of 57%.

And that makes Parliament's food waste even more insulting.

Writing for the Sunday Mirror today, poverty campaigner Jack Monroe accuses Parliament of clear contempt for ordinary people.

RECORD

The level of waste was revealed after a Freedom of Information request by the Sunday Mirror.

Last year Commons officials recorded 148,230kg of food waste, down from 152,688kg in 2020, and 258,869kg in 2019. Waste in the three previous years totalled 677,510kg.

It all equates to 2.6million meals which, had they sold at a typical £8, would have been worth £20.8million.