General Election: "There needs to be fairness" says Mid Beds Lib Dem candidate as he reveals mum "ate toilet paper to suppress hunger"

Stuart Roberts said: “I was in Bradford and I was visiting a charity that takes food that is mislabelled or coming towards the end of its life [but is still] OK.

“They don’t give it away, so it’s not a food bank.

“You’ve got to be some of the poorest in society to be able to become a member, and they sell the food back to people at prices that I’m sure most [people] drinking a £3.80 cup of coffee would think as ridiculous – 2p for a can of beans, 5p for a loaf of bread.”

Roberts explained that it was set up this way to give people the opportunity to provide for themselves.

“Which actually gives a massive well-being lift and a pride lift as it’s not charity,” he said.

“I was talking to a lady who was coming out of this miniature supermarket. She said the place had absolutely changed her life. She said, ‘I’ve come in with 50p and I’ve been able to provide for my family. ‘My kids are going to have a hot meal’.

“I asked what she had bought today, and she said she’d bought two cans of baked beans, two jacket potatoes, a loaf of bread and a toilet roll.

“She said, ‘Tonight my kids are having beans on toast, and tomorrow night my kids are going to have jacket potato and beans’Two hot meals two days in a row that I’ve provided for’.

“I decided this is the point to add some humour into the conversation, so I said if they’re having beans on toast tonight and jacket potato and beans tomorrow night, I can see what you need the toilet roll.

“She said, ‘the toilet roll is so I don’t feel hungry’.

“So we have people in this country and the way they suppress hunger is by consuming toilet paper.

“That really hit home, these are the people we need to really help,” he said,

“And actually, it doesn’t matter where you live, it doesn’t matter what your background is.

“It’s how your values allow you and drive you to help those in society who have not been as lucky, who did not have the opportunities.

“They’re the people who deserve our focus,” he said.

Stuart Roberts said his party’s manifesto has an “overall emphasis on fairness”.

“That’s the bit that Sir Ed Davey [leader of the Lib Dems] has been emphasising,” he said.

“We’ve got a society where the rich have got richer and richer and the poor have got poorer and poorer. The gap between the two is growing.

“There needs to be fairness for everybody, especially for the generations following us,” he said.

The other candidates standing in Mid Beds are:

Richard Brunning – SDPDave Holland – Reform UKGareth Mackey – IndependentMaahwish Mirza – LabourCade Sibley – GreenBlake Stephenson – Conservative

The election is on July 4.