Two Tory MPs were caught in a social media storm last night after suggesting food parcels and free school meals are traded for drugs and even prostitutes in their constituencies.
Ben Bradley, the MP for Mansfield, was forced to backtrack after he implied that vouchers given to feed school children over the summer holidays “effectively” handed cash directly to “crack dens and brothels”.
The MP, who described school meals programme as ‘ever-extending freebies’ after his party voted down a Labour motion to extend the scheme, tweeted a thread which began: “At one school in #Mansfield 75% of kids have a social worker, 25% of parents are illiterate. Their estate is the centre of the area’s crime. One kid lives in a crack den, another in a brothel.
“These are the kids that most need our help, extending #FSM [free school meals] doesn’t reach these kids.”
He goes on: “There is no sense whatsoever in pretending to ourselves that just giving 1.4m kids free meals in hols fixes things.
“Many kids don’t need it, and many in genuine need won’t benefit from it due to extreme lives and problems. To be effective, we have to be more personal and local.”
Someone with the Twitter handle “tryinmybestest” replied to Bradley, saying: “£20 cash direct to a crack den and brothel really sounds like the way forward with this one …”
According to screenshots, the Conservative MP directly replied to this, saying: “That’s what FSM vouchers in the summer effectively did …”
The MP has since backtracked, saying “if you want a proper debate you have to accept that sometimes you get it wrong”.
But as if to make matters worse, Mark Jenkinson, the MP for Workington, waded in shortly after, saying that in his constituency “food parcels are sold or trade for drugs”.
It left the two politicians fighting it out for the award of “worst Tory MP of the week”. We’ll let you decide who deserves the gong!
Related: A year in Tory: What became of a “fantastic 2020 for Britain”?
