INVERCLYDE’S MP has been branded a laughing stock after being caught giggling with a colleague in parliament during a debate about foodbanks.

Labour’s Iain McKenzie was seen on live TV laughing with a female backbencher while discussions took place in the House of Commons.

But Mr McKenzie says he was laughing in sheer incredulity at ‘excuses’ put forward by the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government over the surge in foodbanks.

During the debate, MPs were highlighting the huge rise in the number of people using foodbanks throughout the UK — up from 41,000 in 2009-10 to 913,000 last year, according to the Trussell Trust charity.

But Inverclyde SNP councillor Chris McEleny, who is vying for the right to run against Mr McKenzie in Inverclyde at next year’s general election, lashed out at the Labour MP for laughing during such an important debate and demanded an explanation.

Mr McEleny said: “It’s up to Iain McKenzie to justify what he thought was so funny during an important debate on foodbanks that he felt it appropriate to sit and joke away in the back row.” Mr McKenzie today defended his behaviour and said he was ‘laughing in disbelief’ at comments made by government ministers during the exhanges in the Commons.

He said: “You really had to listen to the debate then you would have been, as I was, stunned into unbelievable laughter over the excuses put forward by the Tories to justify the increasing number of people using foodbanks.

“It was so ridiculously out of touch that it amounted to nothing but a joke.

“For a government minister to claim the increase in people using foodbanks was caused by over advertising of foodbanks encouraging people to go there, and food waste in the supply chain to supermarkets, could only be responded to by laughter of disbelief.” The Labour MP, who is a supporter of Inverclyde Foodbank, pointed out that he also spoke during the debate to highlight the fact that he had seen food being distributed in Inverclyde along with power cards to enable people to cook the items given to them.

Directly addressing Cllr McEleny’s criticism of him, Mr McKenzie added: “It would seem the SNP again let the Tories off the hook by not focusing on their unbelievably out of touch, don’t care comments.”