Lee Anderson, Ashfield MP insists Jack Monroe has made a fortune on the backs of the poor.

[newnamethanks]

AIBU to hope for a libel trial as entertaining as Vardy v Rooney and an outcome that rivals the Katy Hopkins debacle?

Well if only these poor people were clever enough and had the aspirations to be MPs then they too could have subsidised food and drink.

If Jack has genuinely helped the poor with budgeting and recipes, not sure why she should be expected to be a charity and work for free.

I doubt any genuinely poor person has the remotest bit of interest in her and her advice. She is interesting only to the twitterati.

Yup

I would call not paying any taxes for a year tax evasion @Fluval.

I think to suggest otherwise is mere semantics.

I've just taken a look at her website. She has a link for a Tip Jar and a link for Donations - both go to her PayPal. Apart from specific types of food (pasta, beans, soups, etc) she has six links on her site. Two of them are asking for cash. She also asks for cash at the end of every recipe.

Honestly, I really don't know what more evidence some people need that they're being taking for a ride.

Her recipes are freely available online.

She has given her books away to libraries.

She has sold books at effectively cost to people that would struggled to afford them.

However wealthy she is or she isn't, that comment is unnecessary. I hope she wins.

She says she's middle class in this article:

www.theguardian.com/society/patrick-butler-cuts-blog/2013/jun/06/food-poverty-jack-monroe-it-could-happen-to-anyone

"I had a £27 grand a year job. I've not been brought up on benefits and a tracksuit watching Jeremy Kyle. I'm a middle class, well educated young woman who fell a bit by the way side".

It isn’t mere semantics at all, tax evasion is a criminal offence and, like most, has a specific mens rea element, which seems extremely unlikely to be met in these circumstances.

Win what?! She’d never dare have a court case that could lay bare her lies. Of course she’ll keep the money that she’s been asking for to help fund the nonexistent court case.

Also, a lot of her tweets are only allowed to be responded by people she has chosen to answer them. That suggests she doesn't like hearing from critics

Oh okay @Fluval. I wasn't aware we were talking legal terms.

Shall we find a different term then? Tax cheat? Ripping off the NHS? what term would you prefer?

I've just taken a look at her website. She has a link for a Tip Jar and a link for Donations - both go to her PayPal. Apart from specific types of food (pasta, beans, soups, etc) she has six links on her site. Two of them are asking for cash. She also asks for cash at the end of every recipe.

What are the odds that she has no intention of actually going through with the libel case but is happy to take donations for it via her PayPal?

If people aren’t donating to an official crowdfunder then presumably they’d have no way of getting their money back if the case doesn’t happen.

Funny how these MPs kept their gobs shut about poorer people when they were wanting them to wear masks and take vaccines. THEN it was "we are all in this together"

Yes I agree. Also we so rarely hear the voices of those who genuinely live in poverty. We so often instead hear from faux poverty types or people writing books about pretending to live in poverty (Nickle and dimed, etc).

The voices of genuinely poor people are being drowned out by guardian reading/ writing faux poor. I don’t think it’s a good think.

Like I’ve said previously, it appears to be a simple, accidental late filing and, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, I’d call it just that.

Even your non-legal terms like ‘tax cheat’ imply the deliberate withholding of taxes, which does not seem to be the case here.

I am sure that we can look back in Hansard and see that Lee Anderson argued fiercely in the House for the continuation of the universal credit uplift.

Maybe now is the time to stop trying to shoehorn this is to everything.

I'm pretty sure if you had been subject to as much criticism as Jack has, you'd do the same. I certainly would.

But if she stopped lying and saying she was poor and asking people far, poorer for money she wouldn’t get as much criticism.

I think that’s worthy of criticism.

Did you realise that it's not just Tory MPs that claim big expenses for everything? MPs of all parties do it

If this guy was a labour MP he'd be claiming exactly the same!!

@WhiteFire Why? Its totally relevant. People saw through it. Its why the vaccine uptake was low in some communities. You really expect people to trust the same state that leaves them to starve in other circumstances.

The misogyny and bitter envy on this thread is astonishing. Woman earns money. STONE HER. New Tory of dubious provenance bags himself seat in Parliament, a hefty salary with recent payrise, a comfortable expense account and subsidised food and alcohol suitable to his wants. PRAISE HIM. He's a success with his snout in the public trough. Get over yourselves women, shame on you.

Whether or not you agree with Lee Anderson's politics, he's far better placed to comment on poverty and solutions than Jack Monroe

Is he though ? He is apparently an ex coal miner , so had a good job with decent benefits, what did he do after he left or was his pit closed down ? Did he go straight into politics at a national level with decent pay and excellent benefits ?

The Whataboutery from certain posters with their personal axes grinding away is tiresome, isn't it?
Unless of course that poster is saying (which at first glance they seem to be) that poor people shouldn't have been made aware of the need to take precautions against Covid....

I think people need to remember that the vast majority of MPs expenses are actually wages for their staff.

You need to ignore the bullshit headlines touted by people with an agenda and look into the facts.

Eg put of 190k expenses. 160k of which go to office and staff wages. Unless you're going to sack all of the support staff involved in politics, that'd be hundreds of people unemployed.

Does anyone know which pit he worked at and in what capacity and for how long ? I don't know what pit but he started in 1986 and he worked as a miner for ten years. He uses the words 'worked down the pit' and 'followed my dad down the pit' and 'worked as a miner'.

He doesn't say 'worked for a mining company.' or anything like that.