PARLIAMENT was put under fire yesterday for its huge levels of food waste after a reported 45,000 MPs’ meals were chucked in the bins of Westminster last year.

 

Shadow leader of the House Chris Bryant told the government it needed to make urgent steps to reduce unwanted meals in the House when thousands went hungry in London.

 

He said: “Last year 1.2 million sausages were sent to landfill in Rhondda Cynon Taf alone, which is why it is great that the local council is now signing everybody up to proper food recycling.

 

“But new figures show that this House last year wasted 45,000 meals that were just tipped in the bin.

 

“With 33 Trussell Trust foodbanks within the M25 and an estimated 70,000 children in London going to bed hungry each night, would it not be time for the leader to institute a new scheme to donate unused food from this palace to local London foodbanks?”

 

Labour MP Kerry McCarthy’s Food Waste (Reduction) Bill passed its second reading this September.

 

The Bill was supported by The Real Junk Food Project, which collects food that would otherwise be thrown away and turns it into meals at “pay as you feel” prices.

 

The project’s Brighton director Jess Hooper said: “I do think supermarkets should be forced into transparency, I think supermarkets should do more to save food (as proposed by this Bill).

 

“But I don’t think it’s enough. I don’t think it’s even close. But it’s a start. It’s a start of a conversation which for too long has gone unspoken.”