TORY ministers must declare a national food emergency to address the scandal of millions of people going hungry in 21^st-century Britain, the TUC’s annual congress demanded today.

Delegates gathered in Brighton unanimously backed a composite motion which called for a “national food emergency summit to determine how to resource and deliver a plan to ensure that every British citizen can access good quality, affordable, nutritious food.”

The motion — moved by food workers’ union BFAWU and seconded by the British Dietetic Association (BDA) — also demanded universal free school meals, a £15-an-hour minimum wage, inflation-proof benefit rises and a ban on zero-hour contracts to provide workers with a stable salary.

BFAWU general secretary Sarah Woolley told delegates: “We need to change. No-one should be going hungry in Britain in 2022, yet shamefully, millions of people are and a lot of them are working people.

“We’ve had examples of food workers running out of food and relying on friends and families to provide food so they can get to the next pay day, bus drivers using food banks and even a prison trying to set up a food bank for its staff.

“As a movement we need to demand better.”

The BDA’s Katrina Evans blasted the situation as “nothing short of a scandal and a crisis which demands direct action.”

She said that the government’s national food strategy, published in June, did not go far enough and represented a “weak statement of intent.

“Addressing a lack of food for people is a political decision but not one that is sufficiently prioritised by our government.”

Backing the motion, Unite assistant general secretary Diana Holland stressed that environmental concerns and the “jobs, pay and conditions of food workers must be part of any food strategy.”