The Mail On Sunday today published an investigation into the Trussell Trust - a charity which distributes emergency food packages to impoverished people - in which its reporter received a food package after claiming to be an unemployed father of two who was struggling to make ends meet.

The article criticised both the Trussell Trust and the Citizen's Advice Bureau - which is also an independent charity - for failing to carry out sufficient background checks on people using its service to verify whether they were genuinely in need of emergency food supplies.

The article also used its findings to cast doubt on the Trust's widely reported claims that almost a million people would use one of its food banks this year, an increase of 163% on the previous year, and part of a trend that has seen use of the Trust's food banks increase almost fifteen-fold since 2010.