LABOUR Party chair Ian Lavery invited a senior Tory to visit a foodbank in north-east England after he described the film I, Daniel Blake as a “fiction.”

Mr Lavery, who represents the former mining constituency of Wansbeck, invited James Cleverly to meet people who have been badly hit by austerity.

Mr Cleverly mocked the Ken Loach film, which tells the tale of an unemployed worker struggling with a punitive benefit system.

In the letter seen by the Star in which he invites Mr Cleverly to the foodbank, Mr Lavery wrote: “Your words would cause deep hurt to any one of my many constituents relying on the Wansbeck Valley Foodbank to provide for their children due to the very welfare sanctions and regressive austerity policies you have consistently and passionately supported.”

Mr Lavery ended by saying that he hoped the visit would “constructively persuade a change of both your mind and heart.”

At the time of going to press Mr Cleverly had offered no comment.