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A Conservative Party candidate in Nottinghamshire has been criticised for suggesting people using food banks "struggle with being able to manage their budget".

Darren Henry, who is standing to be elected as the MP for Broxtowe, made the comments during a hustings event at Beeston Parish Church on Friday night, December 6.

Mr Henry was heckled by the audience for the remark but also went on to say people struggling financially can get a payday loan.

He said: "When they go down to the food bank, what they struggle with is maybe being able to manage their budget.

"A thing that can help them is [looking at] how we can offer them some advice and support.

(Image: Broxtowe Conservatives)

"When people are really, really down, when people haven't got the money, one of the things they can look to do is to get a payday loan or something like that.

"If I'm in Parliament, as a private member's bill one of the things I'd like to do is to try and stop payday loan advertising because that just makes the whole problem worse."

Fellow candidates at the hustings event have expressed their "shock" to Nottinghamshire Live and labelled the remarks as "crass."

Anna Soubry, who is standing to be re-elected in Broxtowe for The Independent Group for Change, which she leads, said: "Obviously the Conservative candidate doesn't know what he's talking about.

"It's not down to poor budgeting that people end up in food banks, it's because they get into really high levels of debt.

"It does show that Mr Henry is not fit to be the MP for Broxtowe and it also shows that he doesn't understand Broxtowe.

"All of the food banks in Broxtowe work with the Citizen's Advice Bureau which helps precisely the people that Mr Henry is talking about who have got into debt.

"I'm sure Mr Henry is very nice, but these comments just show that he's very inexperienced."

Greg Marshall, who is standing for the Labour Party in Broxtowe, said: "It was absolutely disgraceful and completely crass and it shows a total misunderstanding of the plight of thousands of people in this country.

"We had just been talking during that event about the levels of child poverty in wards not a million miles away from where we were, so to come out with something like that is shocking.

"It was incredibly patronising to people who use food banks who are some of the most vulnerable people in our society and are often working but have either insecure work or are being paid pittance.

"This flippant response to those vulnerable people just demonstrates how out of touch Mr Henry is."

Also at the hustings event was Katharina Boettge, standing for the Green Party, who said that the comments made her "stomach turn."

She said: "I think the vast majority of the people in that room were absolutely appalled by what they heard.

"I was sat right next to him but I was beginning to wonder if I had heard him correctly.

"I've worked as a support worker for years working with people on benefits and often people who have to use food banks, and this comment is a completely unfair and disgraceful judgement on those people.

"Sometimes even nurses have to go to food banks so this is a completely unacceptable remark and when I heard it my stomach turned."

But Anna Soubry also added that the debate around Mr Henry's comment was a "smoke-screen" over the fact that she was heckled by members of the audience for bringing up anti-Semitism.

(Image: parliamentlive.tv)

She said: "The thing that was far more disturbing last night was when I was heckled for calling out the anti-Semitism that is rife within the Labour Party.

"That was a really serious matter because the Labour candidate there did absolutely nothing to stop the hecklers and I was just being totally shouted down for raising a crucial issue."

Responding to that allegation, Mr Marshall said: "Obviously Anna Soubry wasn't listening to the reply I gave to her remark because I said that the Labour Party has got an incredibly long and proud record on fighting racism - as has Jeremy Corbyn.

"Locally I have always been standing up to fascists in Broxtowe and my reply to Anna Soubry's comment got a standing ovation last night - so I disagree with what she's saying."

In a statement, Darren Henry said: "I recognise and want to see more being done to help people out of poverty, and whilst I perhaps answered the first part of the question poorly, the edited clip does not include my comments on the need to ban advertising of payday loans."

Mr Henry also said that his party introduced the National Living Wage and have promised in their manifesto to increase it.

Here are all of the candidates standing in Broxtowe:

David Bishop, Militant Elvis Anti-HS2

Kat Boettge, Green

Darren Henry, Conservative

Teck Keong Khong, Independent

Greg Marshall, Labour

Amy Dalla Mura, English Democrats - Putting England First

Anna Soubry, The Independent Group for Change

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