MEALS of beans on toast, porridge and water are all one councillor has been able to eat or drink for a week.

Cllr Christopher Peacock has spent just £1 a day on food and drink for the past five days to highlight the plight of people living in extreme poverty.

The challenge, launched by the Global Poverty Project, sees people to change their eating and drinking habits so they can understand what people living in poverty have to face.

Cllr Peacock, aged 28, of St John’s Road, Chew Moor hopes to raise at least £150 for the charity, which tackles preventable disease, unfair trade rules, and corruption.

He said: “It was a lot harder than I thought. I had planned to have an omelette each night for tea but I couldn’t afford the eggs. I could only afford two eggs for the week as a treat.”

He said cutting out on snacks and meat for a diet of porridge every morning, beans on toast at lunch and a noodle and vegetable broth at dinner made him lack the energy he would normally have.

Cllr Peacock, who represents Westhoughton and Chew Moor and works as senior caseworker for Yasmin Qureshi, MP for Bolton South, added: “I would say it is the hardest fundraising challenge I have done.

“It has definitely been the most interesting fundraising activity I have done.

“I have been thinking about food constantly, planning what I will be able to eat on Saturday and next week.

“My girlfriend had a pizza and it looked like the most beautiful thing ever. I went to a meeting where there was a buffet and I saw a pork pie and thought it looked like the nicest thing in the world.”

He said Cllr Mike Francis, who represents Harper Green, offered to sponsor him £1 for every pound in weight he lost.

To donate money visit livebelowtheline.com/me/ cllrpeacock