Anti-poverty charities called for a public inquiry yesterday into how attacks on welfare are causing record numbers of people to turn to foodbanks.

Despite Tory proclamations of economic recovery more than 350,000 people received a three-day food package from the Trussell Trust between April and September - three times as many as in the same period last year.

Now the trust has written to the PM David Cameron calling on him to look into the "scandalous" problem of food poverty and warning that some foodbank recipients are so poor they have returned produce that needs cooking because they cannot afford the electricity to heat it up.