By Elliot Chappell
Labour has urged Tory MPs to end the “catalogue of chaos” on free
school meals by voting with the opposition for a motion in favour
of guaranteeing that children receive the full value of the meals
throughout the year including during holidays.
has urged his MPs to abstain on the vote, however –
and even accused Labour of stoking “hatred and bullying” by
planning to raise the free school meals issue, as well as the
looming cut to Universal Credit, in parliament.
In a WhatsApp message, the Prime Minister said the “legislatively
vacuous” opposition day motions amounted to “playing politics”
during the pandemic, and he compared the votes to inciting
behaviour in the style of Donald Trump.
A Labour source remarked that Johnson is “running scared of his
own backbenchers”, adding: “Motions passed by the House can’t be
ignored. We urge Tory MPs opposed to this [Universal Credit] cut
to vote with us on Monday.”
Labour’s said: “Williamson has created a catalogue of chaos on
free school meals. Time and time again he has let down the
parents desperately trying to put food on the table and the
children who have gone hungry through his incompetence.
“He must guarantee that children will get free school meals over
the February half term and put trust in parents by give them the
money for free school meals to ensure their children do not go
hungry.”
The Shadow Education Secretary added: “Conservative MPs will have
the opportunity to vote with Labour today to finally give
families the support they need to get through this crisis.”
The vote on Monday follows a public backlash over images shared
on social media by parents of inadequate free school meal
packages, which have been distributed to households with eligible
children now learning remotely.
One Twitter user shared a
picture of a parcel supposedly comprising £30 worth of food,
containing two potatoes, two carrots, three apples, pasta,
soreen, three frubes, eight single cheese sandwiches, a tin of
baked beans and a loaf of bread.
The parcel had been provided by Chartwell, a private company
contracted by the Department for Education, instead of a food
voucher. Activists and politicians, including , slammed the Prime Minister for this image and other
similar examples.
A Chartwells spokesperson said: “We have had time to
investigate the picture circulated on Twitter. For clarity this
shows five days of free school lunches (not 10 days) and the
charge for food, packing and distribution was actually £10.50
and not £30 as suggested.
“However, in our efforts to provide thousands of food parcels
a week at extremely short notice we are very sorry the
quantity has fallen short in this instance.”
Labour is calling in its motion for the government not to repeat
the fiasco, and instead to guarantee free school meals to the 1.4
million eligible children across the country over February
half-term via a system of cash payments to parents.
The vote on Monday comes after the Prime Minister performed what
Labour described as a “welcome
U-turn” to provide free school meals over the summer last year
while households struggled through the first wave of the
pandemic.
The Conservatives subsequently voted down
a Labour motion in October, proposing that the government
provide the support for children over the holidays up to and
including the Easter break this year, before the government again
U-turned.
