A wealthy Conservative minister provoked anger last night after questioning the connection between the soaring use of food banks and the Government's squeeze on benefits.

Lord Freud, a Work and Pensions minister, insisted that the recent sharp increase in people resorting to food handouts to feed their families was not necessarily linked to benefits sanctions or delays. He suggested more people were taking charity food because more food banks existed - and he prompted Opposition jeers in the Lords when he denied they were effectively a part of the welfare system.

Challenged by the Bishop of Truro, the Rt Rev Tim Thornton, over whether ministers conceded a link between the benefits system and food bank use, Lord Freud replied that it was difficult to "make the causal connections". The minister for welfare reform added: "It is difficult to know which came first - supply or demand."