Why MPs like Ben Bradley are failing tremendously at deflecting from the Conservatives’ record on child poverty

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy You know you’ve hit a nerve when Conservative MPs try to assert that free school meal vouchers will be traded for drugs. Just in case anyone didn’t get the message, Tory MP Mark Jenkinson followed up Bradley’s tweet with one of his own, saying: “I know in my constituency, tiny minority as it might be, food parcels are sold or traded for drugs.” The inconvenient truth about child poverty is the staggering rise under the Conservative government’s watch over the last decade. This really isn’t about whether these vouchers are traded for drugs, rather, it’s a cynical attempt to deflect attention away from the government’s failure to halt the growth in child hunger in 2020. Recent office for national statistics data revealed that those living in the most deprived communities are up to five times more likely to die due to drug use than those living in affluent areas, another inconvenient truth casting a spotlight on the government’s failure to “level up”.