Why is Tory MP Lee Anderson called '30p Lee?

Everyone's least favourite Tory MP - '30p' Lee Anderson - is back in the news.

This time he has made headlines because he's been appointed as deputy chairman of the Tory party.

This is a controversial appointment because of his various scandals, scandals which led to him getting his odd nickname.

Recently, he used one of his members of staff to try and make a point about the cost of living and food banks. In a tweet, which soon spiralled out of control, he introduced his followers to a woman called Katy who works for him in his constituency of Ashfield.

Anderson wrote: "She [Katy] is single & earns less than 30k, rents a room for £775pcm in Central London, has student debt, £120 a month on travelling to work saves money every month, goes on foreign holidays & does not need to use a foodbank. Katy makes my point really well."

The tweet didn't go down too well and Anderson ended up being reported to the Commons authorities.

Last year Anderson engaged in some wordplay to explain why Kwasi Kwarteng's 45p tax u-turn was not actually a u-turn, just "a change in direction" and has suggested the economy is fine, because people still go to 'spoons.

"Go in any Wetherspoons, that's the barometer of how this country is doing, when Wetherspoons is empty we've got a big problem," he said at the Tory party conference in Birmingham.

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That brings us to why he was nicknamed 30p Lee - because of strange comments he made about food banks.

Speaking in parliament in May this year he said that “generation after generation” of people “cannot budget” or make meals properly.

Anderson also said in the Commons that meals could be cooked from scratch "for about 30 pence a day" as he invited "everybody" on the opposition benches to visit a food bank in Ashfield.

He said: "I've got a big bee in my bonnet about food poverty. I'm a big believer that we do need food banks, but not to the degree we've got them.

"Every do gooder is starting these little projects to make themselves feel good."

He said he had worked with a local chef in his Ashfield constituency to make 172 meals after spending £50 in a supermarket.

"'30p Lee' they named me," he said. "That stuck but in a good sort of way, it got people talking about food poverty.

He was criticised for his comments by campaigners and opposition politicians but he didn't retract his comments and every time he appears on TV he says something else to make people roll their eyes.

So that's 30p Lee.

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