Gavin Williamson, MP for South Staffordshire, has labelled complaints by prisoners over food portions sizes as ‘hard to swallow.’
The MP made the comments after an annual report by the Independent Monitoring Board on the HMP Featherstone prison revealed that complaints had been made by inmates over the amount that they were being given to eat.
What made the complaints particularly astonishing was that prisoners at the jail were provided with a broad range of menu options – including five portions of fruit and vegetable daily - and were even served special festive meals on occasions such as Christmas, Chinese New Year, Ramadan, Eid, Sikh Festival and British Pride Week.
Gavin said: “I find this particularly hard to swallow. If they are complaining that their portions are too small, I would remind them that it is us taxpayers on the other side of the fence who are picking up the bill for their food.
“It is a bit rich that someone who has committed a crime of sufficient seriousness to be sent to prison goes around moaning about not having enough to eat.
“The road for these inmates to take if they want to achieve this objective is simple. They can get a job, earn a salary and have enough money to buy whatever food they want.
HMP Featherstone has a nominal operational capacity of 687 prisoners and its kitchens produce 713,000 meals, each year. According to the annual report, the recent complaints over portion size are being ‘addressed.’