CAMPAIGNERS have staged a protest outside Workington's MP Mark Jenkinson's office on his birthday to highlight food insecurity, fuel poverty and debt in the area. 

Protesters brandished the slogan: 'Don’t let him have his cake and eat it, demand your fair share’ outside his constituency office on January 28. 

The demonstration follows after research carried out by Survation for Unite showed that 16,337 people in Workington are living with food insecurity - about 17 per cent of residents. 

21,142 (22 per cent) of residents in the area have either gone into debt or increased their levels of debt in order to meet the increased cost of grocery items, the research shows. 

News and Star: Birthday card delivery for MPBirthday card delivery for MP (Image: Supplied)

Similarly, one in 10 Workington residents – 9,610 people – are not able to pay their household bills this year.

Unite senior organiser Joe Rollin said: “Amid unacceptable levels of hardship and debt across Workington, Mark Jenkinson consistently fails his constituents by voting against their interests in Parliament. The level of food poverty in Workington is scandalous. Mark Jenkinson should be mortified for allowing hunger on this scale to grip the community on his watch.

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"We have a birthday message for the MP for Workington - the community are taking matters into their own hands. Unite intends to build power in our workplaces and simultaneously organise in our communities. Unite has established permanent bases on the ground in Workington to work with workers within their communities to deliver an economy that works for them," he said. 

In response to the demonstration, Mark Jenkinson said: "It continues to disappoint me that the unions use the plight of real people, some of whom they purport to represent, as pawns in their political games. 

"As a former member of Unite, it was stunts like this while they continued to sell me and my colleagues down the river in pay negotiations, that led me to leave. 

"Todays 'protest' was attended by a high proportion of Labour Councillors, candidates and activists, alongside union barons who like to play politician without standing for election. 

"Yet those same activists are silent on Labours proposed 6.9 per cent council tax increase in Cumberland, 12.4 per cent increase in Workington and the fact that Cumberland employees will be working alongside others doing the same job for up to four different pay rates. That in itself should be a source of shame for Unite, whose core purpose was once to prevent such abuses of employees.

"That their priority is to stand with a banner outside my office is a nothing short of a betrayal of their members," he said. 

 

 

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