Anti-poverty campaigner Jack Monroe to sue Tory MP who said they ‘make fortune from the poor’

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Jack Monroe has suggested they will take libel action against Tory MP Lee Anderson, who claimed they “make an absolute fortune” from the poor.

The anti-poverty campaigner and food writer, who won a high-profile libel case against former Daily Mail columnist Katie Hopkins in 2017, tweeted that she had instructed a lawyer after MP Lee Anderson made allegedly “libellous” statements against them in an interview.

Anderson’s comments came about when he was interviewed by the deputy leader of Laurence Fox’s Reclaim Party, Martin Daubney.

Daubney referred to Jack Monroe as the “self-appointed representative of the impoverished”, claiming that they “probably earn more than the prime minister”.

Anderson, responding to Monroe calling him a “white, privileged male” hit back: “She’s taking money off some of the most vulnerable people in society and making an absolute fortune on the back of people.”

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Lee Anderson making outrageous, libellous statements is he? And Martin Daubney encouraging and promoting them. Excellent. @mlewislawyer – got a job for you pal. https://t.co/29DIS0Cs9W

— Jack Monroe (@BootstrapCook) May 13, 2022

After Monroe asked for the clip to be taken down, along with an apology, they tweeted saying a lawyer had been instructed. The video has since remained live, and has almost one million views.

“Gloves off. Lawyer instructed. 732,000 views and climbing. Daubney, Anderson, Fox and co are playing a very expensive game of chicken with someone who has a proven track record of crossing this particular road without fear nor favour,” they tweeted.

It came after Anderson was widely criticised for suggesting there isn’t a “massive use” for food banks, and that people could make meals “for about 30p a day” with some education.

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Speaking during the Queen’s Speech debate on 11 May, the MP told the House of Commons that at his local food bank, “we teach them how to cook cheap and nutritious meals on a budget”

“We can make a meal for about 30p a day, which is cooking from scratch,” Anderson said.

“You’ve got generation after generation who cannot cook properly. They cannot cook a meal from scratch. They cannot budget.”

Monroe criticised his comments on Twitter, stating that the problem is not budgeting, but cuts to social support.

“You can’t cook meals from scratch with nothing. You can’t buy cheap food with nothing,” they said.

“The issue is not ‘skills’, it’s 12 years of Conservative cuts to social support.”

You can’t cook meals from scratch with nothing.
You can’t buy cheap food with nothing.
The issue is not ‘skills’, it’s 12 years of Conservative cuts to social support.
The square root of fuck all is ALWAYS going to be fuck all, no matter how creatively you’re told to dice it.

— Jack Monroe (@BootstrapCook) May 11, 2022