The Archbishop of Canterbury says he has been left more shocked by hunger and food poverty in the UK than scenes he has witnessed in Africa.

In an interview with the Mail Online, Justin Welby described the desperate plight of one family he had encountered at a food bank, and has called on the government to take urgent action.

After describing the poverty he has seen in a refugee camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo, he turned his attention to the story of a family at a food bank in England.

He said: “I was talking to a mum, dad and one child in a food bank. They were ashamed to be there. The dad talked miserably.

“He said they had each been skipping a day’s meals once a week in order to have more for the child.

"But then they needed new tyres for the car so they could get to work at night, and just could not make ends meet. So they had to come to a food bank.

“They were treated with respect, love even, by the volunteers from local churches. But they were hungry, and ashamed to be hungry..." - Archbishop Welby on plight of UK family

“They were treated with respect, love even, by the volunteers from local churches. But they were hungry, and ashamed to be hungry.

“I found their plight more shocking. It was less serious, but it was here. And they weren’t careless with what they had. They were just up against it.

“It shocked me that being up against it at the wrong time brought them to this stage. There are many like them.”

The Archbishop has backed calls for the government to take action to help the estimated 900,000 people relying on the goodwill and charity of others.

Citing the message in St Matthew’s Gospel he has called for a £150 million fund to work towards a “hunger free Britain”, bigger foodbanks to give out more free food, a rise in the minimum wage, and free school meals to be made available during the school holidays.

He has also wants the government to reverse its harsh policies towards people who are unemployed or on benefits, and for supermarkets to give more food to the poor.