Austerity Britain continues. Foodbank use is up 5,000% – yet where are Labour?

At the beginning of the Tory/ Lib Dem coalition government in 2010, the amount of foodbank parcels handed out stood at 60,000. The Trussell Trust has now revealed that this figure is close to three million for the year 2024/2025. And that only includes foodbanks run under the Trussell group. That is a 50 fold or 5000% increase.

What are politicians – namely Labour – doing about it?

The response to the foodbank epidemic from politicians is quite something. In 2022, former prime minister David Cameron tweeted that he had been volunteering at a foodbank for two years. Yes, the very architect of austerity who slashed public services and benefits must be drowning in hypocrisy. He’s a major reason the foodbanks are necessary.

Then there’s now-Reform MP Lee Anderson. As a Tory MP previously, he said:

I think you’ll see first-hand that there’s not this massive use for food banks in this country. You’ve got generation after generation who cannot cook properly. They can’t cook a meal from scratch. They cannot budget

Yet 15% of UK households are living in food insecurity, meaning eight million adults and three million children. In September, union leaders called on Keir Starmer to put a stop to the issue:

We simply cannot allow food banks to be seen as a normal part of life in the 21st Century. People are already at breaking point. You must tackle food insecurity and end food bank Britain.

The Trussell figure for foodbank use for 2024/25 is only an 8% reduction on 2023/24 levels.

Nonetheless, Starmer is going ahead with budget cuts to public services (branded as ‘efficiency savings’), along with cuts to disabled people’s support that will plunge 670,000 families who are already poor into even deeper hardship.

This is contrary to Labour’s manifesto, which said:

We want to end mass dependence on emergency food parcels, which is a moral scar on our society.

The Trussell report into foodbank use

In its report, Trussell made clear the main cause of foodbank use:

Emergency food parcel provision remains close to record levels first and foremost due to a weakened social security system that is unable to protect people from the most severe forms of hardship

The inadequate safety net forced 567,235 people (including 200,224 children) to turn to foodbanks for the first time in 2024/25. At the same time, the UK’s richest 350 households have £773 billion in wealth, according to the Sunday Times rich list for this year.

Low wages are also a factor in foodbank use. 11% of people referred to foodbanks in 2024/25 were earning.

Corporate control

At the same time as people rely on foodbanks, Tesco has reported profits of over £3 billion for 2024/25 and Sainsburys around £1 billion. That is obscene profiteering because of control over the food supply.

It’s clear the system is broken and Starmer doesn’t look likely to fix it.

Featured image via the Canary