David Cameron has faced a backlash for posted a photo of the former prime minister volunteering at a food bank – despite being blamed for the surge in emergency aid because of his austerity agenda.
In series of tweets, the former prime minister revealed he will be driving a small lorry full of supplies for Ukrainian refugees to the country’s border with Poland.
He announced the trip as he confirmed he had been volunteering for two years at a food project in west Oxfordshire called the Chippy Larder. He has previously referred to helping out at the Chipping Norton Food Bank.
Through the project, he said donations had been taken in for refugees from Ukraine and they now had enough “to fill a small lorry with everything from nappies to sanitary products, warm clothes to first aid kits”.
Posting a photograph sitting behind the wheel of the lorry, Cameron said: “I’m currently driving to Poland with two Chippy Larder colleagues to make our delivery to the Red Cross.
“It’s going to be a long drive, but I’ll keep you updated along the way.”
While most will commend his humanitarian efforts to help Ukrainians, commentators pointed to the “hypocrisy” of a politician who helped create the foodbank phenomenon in Britain now posing for pictures at one of the charitable organisations.
Leading foodbank the Trussell Trust handed out 41,000 food parcels in 2009-10, the year Cameron came to power. By 2016, when he exited office, that number had risen to 1.2m. The latest figure stands at 2.5m.
Cameron and his chancellor George Osborne were the architects of the early 2010s Conservative austerity programme that saw government spending slashed to bring the country’s deficit under control. Critics blame the cuts in benefits for the growth of foodbanks.
Labour MP Zarah Sultana led the criticism, tweeting: “Foodbank use went up 2,612% while David Cameron was prime minister. Apologise for that before you start posing for photos.”