A PUBLIC health expert due to be honoured by the Tory government on Saturday has warned that people across Britain are going hungry and cold in their own homes. 

Professor Sir Michael Marmot, director of University College London’s Institute of Health Equity, has been made a Companion of Honour in the New Year’s honours list, drawn up by the Cabinet Office.

The former adviser to the World Health Organisation, who is an outspoken critic of how policies like austerity affect public health, said he was “astonished” by the recognition.

But he stressed: “I try to get us engaged in discussions on social justice and if the award is acknowledging that, I couldn’t be more pleased.”

Referring to British living standards, which are currently under massive pressure due to double-digit inflation and plummeting take-home pay, Sir Michael warned the country is in “serious trouble.”

The researcher explained how he used to assume that so-called developed countries met basic needs for citizens – including food and shelter – but “thinking about where we are in 2022, these basic needs are not being met.

“If part of the basic need of shelter is living in a warm home and people can’t afford to warm their homes sufficiently, or if people can’t afford to feed their families and have to resort to food banks, the basic needs of food and shelter can’t be met.

“We’re in serious, serious trouble,” added the academic, but he noted that the situation is “never hopeless.

“We have the resources and the knowledge to know what to do – we’ve got to have the political will to do it.

“And saying that we’re going to make sure that low-paid workers are paid even less in real terms is not the way to do it.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has repeatedly described below-inflation pay deals for public-sector workers as “fair and appropriate,” despite condemnation from the labour movement and growing pressure from some of his own backbenchers.

Fellow honouree Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, who has been made a CBE, also spoke about “appalling” living conditions nationwide.

The ex-teacher, whose nine-year-old daughter Ella became the first person in Britain to have air pollution listed as a cause of death, has been campaigning for an “Ella’s law” to improve air quality in outdoor and indoor settings.

“In the new year, I’m coming out full guns blazing,” she said.

“Students are people’s children – they go off to university and some live in appalling conditions that landlords expect them to pay top dollar for.”

Ms Adoo-Kissi-Debrah also spoke about two-year-old Awaab Ishak, who died of prolonged exposure to mould in his family’s Rochdale social housing flat in 2020, despite his parents having repeatedly complained about the serious issue.

“When I was teaching, I knew that some children lived in some awful conditions, but I just never thought anyone would die from it.”

She described the infant’s death as “horrific,” adding it was “a long time coming because someone was going to die.”

Other recipients of honours include lifeboat volunteers Dupre Strutt and William “John” Collins, Holocaust educator Michael Brown and four members of England women’s victorious Euro 2022 football team.