MP Damien Moore has been criticised for “playing at photo-op politics” instead of tackling real issues, according to his Labour opponents.
The claim comes just days after local media reports picturing the Conservative MP at the Trussell Trust’s Southport foodbank scheme smiling and stating:
“I’m proud of the work that Southport Foodbank is doing to combat poverty and hunger in our local community. I’m impressed with their diligence and effort to make a difference in the lives of those who need assistance.”
Southport Labour has now discovered though that food parcel figures for the local foodbank project already outstrip those for last year and the full year has not yet been accounted for.
The MP’s visit itself received a strong backlash on social media, with many questioning the wisdom of the move and comments from some describing it as “poverty voyeurism”.
Others drew comparisons with the Southport MP’s recent vote to back the government and reject a Labour plan that would have seen over 5,000 children from some of the town’s and Sefton’s poorest families benefit from free school meals.
Details of the foodbank visit didn’t appear on the MPs website or in the media until after the free school meals row had died down, despite the visit itself happening days before his vote on the school meals issue. One commentator noted:
” Soo… on 9th March he visits the food banks and sees first hand how desperate some families really are at the moment…. he then gets on a train down to London and on 13th March he votes to remove school dinners for low-income families!!! Plunging more families into the same desperate situation he witnessed not three days earlier!”
Now, Southport Labour has revealed that last year’s (2016/17) local foodbank figures have already been topped and it’s estimated that this year’s (2017/18) will see around a 10 percent increase.
Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for Southport, Liz Savage, said the local MP was guilty of “awful judgement and stomach-churning hypocrisy” and needed to address the issues behind the rise:
“The Trussell Trust is non-party political and they do a fantastic job so it’s fine praising the foodbank but when you and your party’s policies are behind the increase in its workload, it rings rather hollow. Under the Tories and Lib-Dems Trussell Trust foodbank use shot up from around 41,000 three day emergency parcels issued when they went into coalition to over a million by the end of it and it has carried on rising since.”
Each emergency parcel provided by the service gives three meals for three days to local adults and children. Last year in Southport 45.108 meals were given out by the scheme but Southport Labour has learnt that the number already stands at 48,249, with more to come.
Liz Savage says the figures are damning for the local MP:
” He’s playing at photo-op politics while local families and residents are struggling. He needs to actually address the issues behind these appalling figures not just pop-up from London and then head back down there to support yet another disastrous policy for his constituents because his party demands it. Southport deserves far better than this.”
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