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A Tory MP demanded a fresh parliamentary inquiry into soaring foodbank use today.

Outspoken backbencher Heidi Allen warned her fellow Conservatives not to “stick our heads in the sand” as she called for a Commons committee to investigate the rising number of hungry people seeking emergency handouts.

Welcoming the publication of a “powerful” report drawn up by academics and foodbank operator the Trussell Trust , she said: “The first thing, particularly for Members of Parliament on the Government side - we have to be not scared of this, we have to embrace this data and say this is powerful stuff and it's telling us something, and we can't stick our heads in the sand.

“We have to listen to it.”

(Image: Getty Images Europe)

Today's bombshell report - the biggest ever study of UK foodbanks - showed that four out of five foodbank users go hungry multiple times a year with some skipping meals for days at a time.

Outlining the horror of hunger gripping some of the country’s poorest families, the Oxford University probe found soaring housing costs, rocketing energy bills and rising grocery prices were piling pressure on budgets of the hardest-up Britons.

Speaking at the report launch in Parliament , Ms Allen feared Brexit -fuelled inflation is going to “put more pressure on households”.

More than half of families relying on emergency handouts included a disabled person, 75% experienced ill health in their household, while mental health problems affected people in a third of families.

One in three households struggled to meet minimum monthly repayments on outstanding loans, and nearly one in five mired in debt owe money to payday lenders.

The 70-page report was based on data gathered from more than 400 households using 18 foodbanks around the country.

Pointing to how foodbank use climbed under David Cameron 's government, South Cambs MP Ms Allen said it was “staggering” that Trussell Trust foodbanks gave out enough emergency parcels to feed more than 1.2 million people last year, up from 61,000 in 2010-11.

(Image: Getty Images Europe)

“Something somewhere is going wrong,” she said.

Today's study revealed nearly two in five people using foodbanks were waiting for a benefit payment , with most waiting up to six weeks.

A fifth were waiting seven weeks or more, while a third of delays were for Employment Support Allowance payments.

Calling for a probe into links between foodbank use and benefits decisions, Ms Allen, who sat on the Work and Pensions Select Committee in the last Parliament, pledged: “If I'm lucky enough and I get back on the Work and Pensions Select Committee, the first thing I'll do is talk to my chairman – can we get some kind of inquiry into this, to look very, very specifically about that relationship about things going on in job centres and foodbanks?

She believed the Government was “listening” and wanted to “change perception” as she defended Theresa May's mantra of trying to help the “just about managings” - even though “that reputation has taken one hell of a battering in the last few weeks”.

And she was “pleased” the flagship Universal Credit rollout was behind schedule because “there's still a lot of work we need to do to make it fit for purpose, so that gives us an opportunity”.