Some 320,000 people turned to food banks for the first time in the six months to September, Metro reports.

A day after the education minister suggested foodbanks were being used by newly-single people and those with broken boilers, it has been announced 1.3 million people needed help.

Gillian Keegan said that those who need support were experiencing emergencies such as a ‘relationship or a boiler or anything’.

The chief executive of the Trussell Trust has now urged the government to take ‘drastic action’ as figures show a record number of people needing emergency food parcels across the UK.

Emma Revie gave a bleak picture of what the charity termed a ‘tsunami of need’, amounting to 1.3 million packages provided to those experiencing hardship in the six months to September this year.