Theresa May has been confronted with a shameful truth about her austerity agenda. A local charity in her constituency of Maidenhead has put out an urgent appeal for food donations.
According to The Maidenhead Advertiser, Katie Hierons from the charity Foodshare said:
We’re trying to give families extra food because they will not have school meals [during the school holidays], so we’re asking for extra donations.
Poverty is a reality in May’s constituency
The charity in Maidenhead supports around 200 people per week. And while many might think the Conservative constituency is fairly well off, Foodshare’s website says that poverty is a reality in Maidenhead. And it gives some case studies of how a family may end up using a food bank in the area:
Dad is working, but mum is a full time mum with 3 children, 5, 3 and 11 months. have moved to Maidenhead because of work but find it very expensive. They have no family around to help or support them.
They live on £1,000 a month . . . pay rent of £895. Then have bills to pay on top of that and petrol to take the husband to and from work.
. . .unable to get a Housing Solutions house or housing benefits as they earn to much. Mum is unable to work due to having the children. She has looked at working but the cost of childcare would eat up any wage she has. Until they started receiving food from us they very often didn’t eat for days at a time, making sure that the children had food and clothing. They are unable to obtain much help.
Austerity full steam ahead
May’s own constituents having to rely on handouts as a result of austerity was described as “utterly shocking” by Shadow Cabinet Secretary Jon Trickett. He also said that it should be “a matter of shame to Theresa May”.
Meanwhile, the harsh impact of austerity is still being felt across much of the country. A Resolution Foundation report showed the top 1% recovered quickly from the economic recession, but everyone else, especially young people and private renters, are still struggling.
Although May claimed she wanted to help these two groups when she became PM, the government continues to commit to cutting corporation tax while maintaining the public sector pay cap.
The pleas from this charity hit home the real impact May’s austerity agenda is having. The fact that a charity in her own constituency needs to “plug the gap society leaves” is a damning assessment of just who May is leaving behind.
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