ONE year ago the MP for Taunton stood up in Parliament to say residents in her constituency had 'thousands more' in their pockets.

During a Budget Resolution meeting on Thursday, November 23 2017, Rebecca Pow claimed Taunton Deane residents 'have actually got thousands more in their pockets' than in previous years.

An online petition calling for her resignation reached 1,900 signatures following the comments as residents were outraged by Ms Pow's insinuation.

Petition creator, Tink Dyer, said she witnesses homelessness on the rise across the county, and residents weren't seeing thousands more in their pockets.

Taunton Foodbank also disagreed with Ms Pow's comments, saying more people were using their services with a 40 per cent rise.

One year on, the foodbank says the situation has only marginally increased.

Mary Hart, a trustee at the foodbank, said: "When Rebecca Pow made her speech in Parliament in 2017 the Foodbank was experiencing by far the busiest year since opening in 2012. The number of people needing the help of the Foodbank had increased by almost 50 per cent and this was accounted for by the increase of people having problems and delays with their benefits following the roll out of Universal Credit in Taunton Deane.

"At that time we were providing food for an average of 94 people a week.

"Now, a year on we can report that things have changed only very slightly for the better.

"The government made some welcome changes to the administration of Universal Credit earlier this year and this has resulted in fewer people coming to us because of benefit problems and delays.

"Sadly this decrease has been offset by an increase in people coming with sickness, debt, low income and homelessness and we are still providing food for an average of over 90 people a week."

READ MORE: MP criticised after saying people in Taunton Deane have 'more money in their pockets'

But what was actually said which caused the outrage?

During the session, Hansard records Ms Pow's comments below.

Rebecca Pow said in Parliament: "The people in Taunton Deane (who) speak to me, they've actually got more money in their pockets.

"We have put up the national living wage, we have cut income tax by raising the personal allowance and again we have frozen fuel duty so people have actually got thousands more in their pockets than they had under the Labour Government."

Mr McDonnell responded, saying: "I know the honourable lady is well intentioned but can I just say she has displayed an ignorance about what large numbers of people are experiencing.

He added: "I just say that all of us, who are on relatively high wages, need to understand and be very careful when we talk about levels of income, levels of wealth, when we know so many people - four million of our children - are actually living in poverty and two thirds of those children are living in households where someone is at work.

"That says something about low pay to me and it should do to all of us."

Ms Pow didn't offer much explanation at the time, but her party said she was referring to 'specific measures' that had been made since the Conservatives came into power in 2010.

The County Gazette has contacted Ms Pow for her opinion on her comments one year later, but she is yet to respond.