MPS have defended their decision to vote against a motion calling for less dependency on food banks.

Both Braintree MP Brooks Newmark and Witham MP Priti Patel have dismissed the motion, put forward by Labour on Opposition Day, as nothing more than a “political stunt.”

Shadow environment secretary Maria Eagle said that the number of people using Trussell Trust banks had increased from 41,000 in 2010 to more than 500,000 since April this year- one third of which were children.

She called for measures to cut the use of food banks including an energy price freeze, a water affordability scheme, measures to end abuses of zero hours contracts, incentives to companies to pay a living wage and abolition of the under-occupancy penalty.

But Mr Newmark said: “They took no responsibility for driving the country into a very deep recession, the worst we have seen in a century.

“I am not supporting a motion when for something they are taking no responsibility for.

“They way to get out of the problem is to create jobs and growth.

“I have spent time in food banks both at Tesco and Morrisons in the past year and people having to use a food bank at anytime is a tragedy but between 2005 and 2010 the use of food banks went up from 3,500 to 40,000, food banks aren’t something that suddenly appeared in 2010 when the Conservatives were elected.”

During Wednesday’s parliamentary debate he also praised volunteers and churches who support the food banks, and his comments were echoed by Ms Patel.

She added: “It is disgraceful to see that the Labour Party – who presided over record increases in personal and public debt, the deepest recession on record, and huge numbers of job losses when in Government – now want to turn food banks into a political football.