With cake being such an expensive commodity these days, a Government Minister has come up with a new dietary regime for the revolting poor: Let them eat leftovers.

Richard Benyon, a Conservative Westminster Environment Minister, says if families are so short of cash, why are they throwing away so much food? "Careful fridge management" is the way to cope with the strain on household expenses.

Benyon's advice may be sound. His intentions may be of the best. But poverty-stricken families just one step away from the food bank may ponder if Benyon knows whereof he speaks. He is the wealthiest MP in the Commons with a family fortune of £110m.

He is on a reasonable salary of £107,108 as MP and Government Minister. Plus the ability to make lavish expense claims, including a £400 a month allowance for buying food, no receipts required. Why should MPs vote themselves such a substantial perk? Why can't they fund their daily calorific intake from their own pockets as the rest of us do?

Judging by his dislike of waste, Benyon will be a careful sort of chap who follows his own advice on leftovers. Maybe a slice of game pie. Or some partridge, venison, and quail cold cuts from the shooting at the family estate.

I suspect that waste is not much of an issue for most people on benefits or the £26,000 a year the average family has to live on. It certainly wasn't when I was a lad in a large family where having your tea was a stretch-or-starve experience. There was no need for "careful fridge management" because we didn't have a fridge. There was always enough in the larder and the bread bin to get by.

In further food advice this week, a nutritionist at Kings College London says that with careful planning an adult could spend as little as £12 a week on a healthy, balanced diet.

Just fill up on starchy foods and cheap fruit and vegetables. Get used to baked potatoes, soups, and pasta bakes.

Your supermarket trolley will be full of potatoes, bananas, tinned tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, and borlotti beans. There will be eggs and cheese for protein.

Meat will be a once or twice a week treat. But think of the delights of a dish of second-day borlotti bean stew with lentils.