A NORTH Yorkshire Tory MP has admitted delayed Universal Credit payments are forcing people to turn to foodbanks.

Kevin Hollinrake, MP for Thirsk and Malton, said people faced "cash flow" problems because they had to wait six weeks for a first payment after claiming the new benefit.

Mr Hollinrake, who chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on Poverty, spoke at fringe at the Conservative Party conference last week, when he reportedly said it was "crazy" that benefit changes were forcing people to rely on charity - adding that local and national government were "exacerbating a bad situation".

Now Mr Hollinrake has since maintained that problems with the new benefit do drive people to foodbanks - and making people wait six weeks for payments has led to the rise in foodbank use.

He added: "It won't come as a surprise to anybody that the machinery of government is not as efficient or effective as it might be. It's the machinery of government that mean some of those problems had lasted longer than they could have."

He said the Government has listened to those concerns, and changed the process so people can get immediate payments on the day of application - and although that move had given him "some comfort" it remained to be seen whether the changes would do enough to help.

Speaking after the conference, Mr Hollinrake said he still backed Theresa May's leadership despite her nightmare speech - plagued by a prankster handed her a P45, a persistent cough, and a collapsing set.

"I really enjoyed the Prime Minister's speech - I thought the content was excellent and her delivery excellent until she was interrupted by an idiot and unforuntately she got this cough," the MP said.

"Why would it change my belief that Theresa May is the right person to run this country because she has got a cough?"

He also said her announcement local authorities would be able to borrow and build houses was "transformative".

"The last time we built 250,000 homes a year was in 1972 and then councils built 100,000 homes."