A homeless mum living in temporary accommodation revealed she had just 14 pence to live on.
The heartbreaking story of Rachel from Grimsby was revealed on a special BBC General Election report last night.
Returning from a food bank in the Lincolnshire town, Rachel invited the BBC into the temporary accommodation she shared with teenage son Bradley and emptied her pockets to show how much money she had, reports GrimsbyLive.
On the table she put down four 2p pieces and six 1pence coins and said: “That’s all our money”.
Asked what her concern in life was at that moment, Rachel started to wipe away tears saying: “Making sure my son is fed and has a roof over his head for the time being.
“If I didn’t have him I wouldn’t be here. I know I wouldn’t. It’s because of him I’m still here.”
Rachel was among several prospective voters who had been relying on community shops and food banks who were interviewed by the BBC.
But asked about voting, the views displayed the deep mistrust of politicians and division over which parties could help most.
Asked if any party deserved her vote, Rachel said: “Sometimes I think they don’t deserve it because they don’t get, they don’t understand, what it’s like to be without.”
And asked about Brexit she said: “The situation I’m in, it can’t get any worse.”
At a community shop with his partner Michelle, John, who moved to Grimsby a year ago from Margate, said he intended to vote Conservative.
He said the couple had hit rock bottom staying in a homeless hotel in the south coast before moving to Grimsby and said: “It’s going to sound awful but I like everything that Boris talks about.”
Another single mum, Lucy, who said she and her kids curled up in blankets and “sobbed” because they couldn’t afford their heating bills, said she was undecided on how to vote at next week’s poll.
Asked if she had faith in politics, she said: “No, no. In some ways I wish I did. But who do you trust? And of course with Brexit coming up as well, it’s worrying times.”
At the food bank, former rough sleeper Dwayne said he would now vote Labour after years of voting Conservative.
And Pam Hodge of the Rock Foundation food bank, said she had yet to decide how to vote.
She said Grimsby was getting “worse every year” as it battled poverty and unemployment.
Asked if she knew who she would vote for next week, Pam said: “Not at the moment, no. And who do you believe? We see all this poverty, all this desperation, every single day. But I don’t know who I will vote for. Who do you believe?”
The BBC special report by Ed Thomas on Wednesday night was came as a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found around one million people on low incomes were planning to vote for the first time, with 170,000 of them swing voters. But it found deep mistrust among voters for politicians and their leaders.
In a seat like Great Grimsby, where one in two kids grow up in poverty, their vote could be crucial to leading candidates Melanie Onn, seeking re-election as a Labour MP for the third time, and rival Conservative candidate Lia Nici.
Recent polls suggested the Tories were set to capture Grimsby from Labour with the Brexit Party a distant third.
