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Edwina Currie is getting mercilessly trolled for asking how children can be going hungry when so many of them are fat

The replies on Twitter have been savage.
The replies on Twitter have been savage. The replies on Twitter have been savage.

Edwina Currie has come under fire for seeming to suggest a report that millions of UK children are at risk of going hungry is wrong because there is a “national epidemic of child obesity”.

The former Conservative MP was referencing a warning sent out by a cross-party group of MPs and peers about what children eat over the school holidays, citing evidence of kids surviving on a diet of crisps and other unhealthy food when school canteens are shut.

a child on the scales (Gareth Fuller/PA)
a child on the scales (Gareth Fuller/PA)
(Gareth Fuller/PA)

Currie asked her followers: “How can ’3 million UK children be going hungry in the holidays’ when there’s a national epidemic of child obesity? Eh?”

Some people chose to reply by pointing out some obvious information, as well as providing some reasons for the complex situation.

But the main response has been mockery, with many posing similarly framed questions back to her.

The all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on hunger suggested Whitehall should place a duty on councils to work with schools, churches, community groups and businesses to tackle the issue.

The latest UK child obesity figures for 2015/16 from Public Health England show that 19.8% of children in Year 6 (aged 10-11) were obese and a further 14.3% were overweight. Children in Reception (aged 4-5) sat at 9.3% for obesity, with another 12.8% overweight.