MPs enjoy luxury chargrilled sirloin steak for £13.90 in Parliament as 280,000 food bank parcels given out in London

MPs have attracted attention after the prices of their Members’ Dining Room made the rounds on social media. In a Twitter thread about Asda’s new over-60s deal to combat the cost of living crisis, one person highlighted the discrepancy between the offer and the food served for politicians whilst at Parliament.

The user tweeted: “Forget ASDA’s soup & bread roll for a quid. Get yourself down to Parliament where they’re doing Miso roasted squash with cashew nut ‘feta’, sesame tahini purée, parsnip crisps and sesame dukkah for £3.59. A bargain.” The prices quoted in the Tweet were from their 2021 menu.

Asda recently announced it would be offering over-60s soup, a roll and unlimited hot drinks this winter for as little as £1. The supermarket revealed the offer as part of its new range of ‘winter warmer’ initiatives that aim to support customers and community groups amid the cost of living crisis. It comes after Asda launched a new ‘Kids eat for £1’ initiative back in June, with more than 557,000 meals served to help families struggling under soaring inflation.

On the Members’ Dining Room menu for Autumn/Winter 2022, MPs can bag dishes such as soup of the day for £2.80, prawn cocktail (misprinted on the menu as prawn and cocktail) is priced at £3.35, and mains of roast sirloin of beef with mini ‘Wessex’ pasty, tender stem broccoli, carrot puree and golden ale sauce selling for £13.90 (same goes for the chargrilled sirloin steak and fat chips), and pan-fried sea bream with pea veloute, gem lettuce, heritage radish, baby leeks, chorizo and Anna potatoes go for a cool £9.50.

All of their desserts, with the exception of the British cheese board (£4.30), cost £2.80. The most expensive items on the menu are the two sirloin dishes at £13.90. The average retail price for steaks in the UK is £14.16 per kilo according to Statista, and you’ll find a sirloin steak sold for a wide range of prices in restaurants.

The same cut (400g) is priced at £37.50 at famous chain Hawksmoor, who also sells a sea bream dish for £25. According to Selina Wamucii, the average price of sea break is £2.69 per kilo in 2022. Comparison website Menulist.menu revealed of 110 restaurants surveyed, the average cost of sea bream was £15.30.

Prices from the same Members’ Dining Room menu from 2021 revealed the soup of the day went for £2.37, oak smoked salmon with capers, shallots, horseradish cream and brown bread and butter was £3.95, and a slightly different version of the chargrilled steak dish (it was ribeye in 2021) was priced at £8.04. Other dishes with the top price of £8.04 included sticky braised beef cheek with charred hispi cabbage, beef fat roasted onion, creamed potato and gremolata; and roast lamb loin with smoked carrot purée, baby leek, and Tunworth cheese croquette potato.

Four of 2021’s main dishes were priced at £6.41 and two dishes – a chicken madras and road beef dinner – cost £5.67. Last year’s desserts were slightly cheaper at £2.37, and the selection of Welsh cheeses were £3.63.

A previous copy of the same dining room’s menu (date unknown) showed the prices were on the whole slightly more expensive in comparison to that of 2021’s. The ribeye steak used to cost MPs £9.19, soup of the day was £2.71, and their pan-fried salmon with courgette provencale, buttered cocotte potatoes, black olive crumb and chive cream sauce was £7.33.

283,563 emergency food parcels were given out in London in 2021/2022

Research collated by the Trussell Trust revealed they delivered 2.1million emergency food parcels to people in crisis during the 2021/2022 financial year. It was a 14 per cent increase in the same period in 2019/2022. In comparison to this time five years ago, the need for food banks across the UK has increased by 81 per cent, according to the Trussell Trust.

A total of 2,173,158 food parcels were made to food banks across the UK, more specifically 283,563 parcels were given out in London in 2021/2022. The Trussell Trust’s statistics looked at volume rather than unique users, meaning people received around 2.4million food bank referrals in the last year. In the same period a year ago, 423,263 parcels were distributed in London.

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