MP Andrew Smith yesterday defended Oxfam’s food poverty campaign.

The Cowley-based charity was criticised this week by Bournemouth Tory MP Conor Burns who complained to the Charity Commission about its new campaign being overtly political.

But Labour Oxford East MP Mr Smith said: “I hope Oxfam will continue to be brave, both in tackling the consequences of poverty, wherever it is evident, and its causes.”

Ben Phillips, Oxfam campaigns and policy director, said: “Oxfam is a resolutely non-party political organisation. We have a duty to draw attention to the hardship suffered by poor people we work with in the UK.”