"THINGS really need to change" – that’s the blunt message from Rebecca Jenkins, Labour’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Redditch.

Rebecca Jenkins was speaking while at a rally in Walsall last week showing solidarity with Unite, against the roll out of Universal Credit.

She said Universal Credit was incredibly damaging and said one third of children in Redditch now live in poverty.

She said one in three children are going hungry, there are nine food banks in the town, and churches are being forced to act as places where children can go to get a hot meal.

She went on to say there are nearly 4,000 people in the town claiming Universal Credit with some waiting up to eight weeks to get access to money, meaning people are going hungry.

“We must end Universal Credit, and we must get a Labour government,” she said.

It comes days after a food drive was organised by the prospective parliamentary candidate outside Lidl.

120kg of food was donated which will go toward good causes in the town.