Food bank use in Surrey more than doubled in five years, according to a new report.

Green Party MEP Keith Taylor has published Escalating Hunger in the South East, examining the rise in food bank use between 2013 and 2017 in nine counties.

In Surrey, the wealthiest county in the region, use increased by 123.49 per cent – more than double the rise in any of the other counties, and six times the average of 19.9 per cent.

In 2013, Surrey had 6,787 people used food banks, rising to 15,168 in 2017.

Low income was the biggest reason for people seeking emergency food aid in the UK last year.

Mr Taylor said in the report that although unemployment figures are going down, work is becoming less secure and with worse pay, forcing people to rely on charity.

He called food banks “a shameful side of the British economy”.