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Michael Gove has been slammed for claiming poor people eat junk food to find “solace” in their “difficult lives”.

Critics have lined up to explain to the environment secretary the difficulty of paying for healthy food for people on low incomes.

Mr Gove, who heads the government department in charge of food, said people with less money can find comfort in unhealthy foods.

He said: “If you have got a difficult life and you have less money, then one of the things that can be a source of comfort, solace and pleasure will be buying and eating and consuming food that is not always going to be best for you in the long term.”

Labour’s education chief Angela Rayner, who has spoken before about her family’s struggle to put food on the table when she was growing up, hit out at Mr Gove for being out of touch.

(Image: AFP)

She said: “No Michael food choice is severely restricted to those who suffer poverty it’s mostly based on cost, those who are well off financially can “choose” from a wide range of healthy food options”.

Alison Garnham chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group told the Evening Standard: “Certainly food that is rich in nutrients is generally more expensive but the real story here is that more and more families are forced to use food banks - not for solace but for a square meal - because they don’t have enough money to live on.

“The budgets of struggling families are taking a battering as the freeze on family benefits and cuts to tax credits and universal credit bear down.

“If we want to protect the living standards of ordinary families, ending the four-year freeze on family benefits is a crucial first step.”

Labour’s environment, food and rural affairs spokeswoman Sue Harman said: “Michael Gove demonstrates why his austerity obsessed Tories are so out of touch with the country.



“It is completely unacceptable for Michael Gove to suggest that poor people eat bad food out of solace. Record numbers in our country are

reliant on foodbanks, and they are not doing for this solace. The cost of living crisis is hitting millions of people.



If he really wants to challenge the reason why the Tory economic model is failing, he must stand up to Hammond and May and tell them to end

austerity, invest rather than cut, and put ordinary people before their wealthy donors.”