Tory MP Philip Hollobone: Poor households could learn about eating healthy food on a budget from wartime generation Poor households could learn from the wartime generation about how to eat healthy food on a tight budget, a Conservative […]

Poor households could learn from the wartime generation about how to eat healthy food on a tight budget, a Conservative MP told the Commons on Thursday.

Philip Hollobone said nutrition improved for most households during the Second World War, a period in which food rationing was introduced by the government.

The Kettering MP asked ministers if lessons could be learned from the wartime generation on “how best to feed our people”.

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“This Government has got more people back into work than ever before and the best way to tackle poverty is to help people off benefits and get them into work.” George Eustice, Environment Minister

Speaking during environment, food and rural affairs questions, Mr Hollobone said: “Food insecurity is a terrible thing and it’s exacerbated by low-income households spending too much on food that isn’t good for them.

“During the war, the wartime generation knew how to manage on a very tight budget and nutrition actually improved for most households, including the very poorest.

“Could we learn some lessons from the wartime generation on how best to feed our people?”

Don’t mention the war (again)

It was the second time in 24 hours a Tory MP had invoked wartime memories after Boris Johnson compared French President François Hollande to a WW2 prison guard dealing out “punishment beatings” in a row over Brexit.

Labour MPs seized on Mr Hollobone’s remarks as evidence the government was failing to get to grips with the “scale of hunger” felt by millions across Britain.

“If we want to end hunger in the UK we must think more holistically to fully understand and address why people are unable to put food on the table.” Adrian Curtis, Trussell Trust

Emma Lewell-Buck, MP for South Shields, said the Conservatives had failed the estimated 8.4 million people in Britain living in food-insecure households and “largely caused” the problem due to “their own punitive welfare reform policies”.

Environment minister George Eustice “fundamentally disagreed” with Mrs Lewell-Buck, adding: “This Government has got more people back into work than ever before and the best way to tackle poverty is to help people off benefits and get them into work.”

Adrian Curtis, Foodbank Network Director at The Trussell Trust said: “Every week Trussell Trust foodbanks meet people who have been just about managing on extremely tight budgets… but most of the people we talk to know how to eat healthily and think creatively to stretch already-squeezed budgets.

“If we want to end hunger in the UK we must think more holistically to fully understand and address why people are unable to put food on the table.”