It has not been a good week for the three most prominent Tory politicians in West Cumbria: Trudy Harrison, Conservative MP for Copeland, Mark Jenkinson, Conservative MP for Workington and Mike Starkie, the unelected Conservative Mayor.

First, both Mrs Harrison and Mr Jenkinson voted against enshrining into law the UK’s high standards on consumer protection and animal welfare putting British farmers at risk from substandard foreign imports.

They then both voted against the Marcus Rashford campaign to provide children from low income families with free school meals during the holidays – right in the middle of a severe economic and public health crisis caused by the failure of the government to control Covid-19.

Mr Jenkinson then did worse, and claimed that one of the reasons free school meals over the holidays are a bad thing are because they can be “traded for drugs”. Perhaps Mr Jenkinson could let us know which drug dealers in West Cumbria accept cans of soup for class A-drugs?

For a political party that represents the interests of corporations and billionaires this smearing of working families should not be a surprise. But what might be a surprise to some, is that since Mr Starkie, who as our Mayor represents Copeland on the national stage, joined the Conservatives, he has remained silent on these issues.

We know child poverty is a major problem in West Cumbria. We have some of the highest rates of deprivation in the UK. But beyond the statistics are real people’s experiences.

I recently spoke to Coun Emma Williamson, who is the Cumbria County Councillor for Kells and Sandwith, and she said this to me: “During the pandemic the amount a food parcels delivered was incredible but it brought to me the reality of people’s situation.

“I remember a volunteer dropping a food parcel off to a family in my ward and the little boy shouted ‘look Mam, an apple, it’s an apple’. It broke my heart and bought me to tears.”

Since the news on the Commons’ free school meals vote broke, the reaction from members of the local community and small businesses who have stepped up to offer support and assistance has been amazing and heart-warming.

But Mr Starkie’s silence has been deafening and as a prominent Conservative politician, we can only assume he supports the current government policy on free school meals, because after ditching his promise to be “independent”, he has now, in his own words, “bought into the Conservative manifesto”.