A bit of googling showed that the controversy about the picture started before christmas when Angela Eagle MP tweeted that him smiling showed that he had no shame. Guido then posted a blogpost showing that Angela and other Labour MPs were being hypocrites as they were happy to smile for photographs when visiting food banks.
The issue of the growth of food banks is complicated - Is it growing demand from the poor? Growing supply as new food banks open and organisers become more professional? Is it due to the coalition's policies? Did the growth start under the previous government?
I don't know enough about the evidence to examine the various hypotheses. However i do know how to do do google image searches and so in the interests of political balance, i searched for images of MPs visiting food banks. I then searched for those MPs who are members of the cabinet or shadow cabinet. The results are shown below (click on the name for the link to original picture/article).
I learnt a few things:
- Most MPs are happy to be photographed smiling as they visit a food bank (only a few look neutral and none particularly sad or angry)
- Few senior Conservatives have been photographed visiting food banks although backbenchers seem happy to visit.
- Ed Miliband has been photographed looking happy and sad on visits to separate food banks. I'm not sure where the happy picture was taken but the sad picture was taken at a food bank in the Prime Minister's constituency - a cunning move!
- Some MPs websites are not particularly user-friendly, especially when it comes to searching for specific articles!
MPs smiling
Conservative
Labour
Liberal Democrat
Conservative
(not sure if he is smiling or not)
(not sure if he is smiling or not)
(not exactly smiling but the only picture i could find)
(more neutral than smiling)
(looking like she is trying not to smile)
(looking neutral)
No pictures
I was unable to find pictures of the MPs listed below visiting food banks - either they have not visited, were not photographed if they did visit, or have not tagged a picture of a visit well enough for a google search to bring it up.
Conservative (cabinet members):
David Cameron, William Hague, Theresa May, Philip Hammond, Ian Duncan Smith, Chris Grayling, Michael Gove, Jeremy Hunt, Owen Paterson, Justine Greening, Patrick McLoughlin, Theresa Villiers, David Jones
Labour (shadow cabinet):
Andy Burnham, Chuka Umunna, Tristram Hunt, Hilary Benn, Ivan Lewis, Jim Murphy, Margaret Curran, Owen Smith, Maria Eagle, Jon Trickett, Chris Leslie
Liberal Democrat (cabinet members):
Vince Cable, Alistair Carmichael, Edward Davey
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