Plan to roll out free school dinners
MPS ACCUSE GOVERNMENT OF ‘LETTING DOWN’ THE UK’S VULNERABLE CHILDREN
FREE meals could be rolled out in Hull next week as councillors try to back a scheme by footballer Marcus Rashford to ensure kids in poverty don’t suffer during mid-term.
Hull City Council is trying to organise meals for more than 11,000 children entitled to free school meals in the city.
It comes as two of Hull’s Labour MPS accused the government of “letting down” the country’s most vulnerable children by rejecting a motion to extend free school meals, while the city’s council said it could step in to put them on.
Hull North’s Diana Johnson and Hull West and Hessle’s Emma Hardy both said the Conservatives’ rejection of Labour’s motion meant thousands of East Yorkshire children faced hunger over half term and Christmas.
The free school meals campaign had been led by Manchester United footballer Rashford who had successfully lobbied the Government during lockdown to provide school meals to the neediest kids over summer. He was awarded an MBE for his work, but said he was in “despair” at the vote by Tories to reject a similar move over half-term and the winter holidays.
Inhull In Hull there are 7 7,063 063 children entitled to free school meals along with 4,148 in secondaries, 371 in special schools and 275 in pupil referral units. In East Riding there are 6,740 eligible for free school meals.
Hull City Council’s finance portfolio holder Cllr Phil Webster said Guildhall officials were also looking at ways to provide free meals for vulnerable children in Hull over the half-term school holidays.
He said the authority had an unspent pot of money from earlier this year which could hopefully be used to fund a scheme similar to the national initiative recently proposed by Manchester United star Marcus Rashford.
Cllr Webster said: “We are looking to see if we can get something off the ground for next week’s half-term. We haven’t got a lot of time, but we have got some unused funding which could be used.”
All three Labour MPS in Hull, Dame Diana, Ms Hardy and east Hull MP Karl Turner voted in favour of Labour’s motion tabled on Wednesday to extend the free school meals over the holidays.
Dame Diana said she would continue to push for the extension given the coronavirus pandemic would likely push more families into poverty.
She added 40 per cent of children in her constituency were already living in poverty before the pandemic. Ms Hardy said the rejection of the motion amounted
to the “b “abandoning” d i ” of f vulnerable l bl children.
The Hull North MP said: “The Conservative Government has let down more than one million of the least advantaged children across the country who now face going hungry during the October half-term and over the Christmas holidays.
“Around 40 per cent of children in my Hull North constituency were already living in poverty before the coronavirus crisis.
“This will only get worse with worries over job losses and the end of furloughing. This is the biggest public health crisis in a century.
“Government measures need to support families and children at this very difficult time.
“We are now faced with working families facing severe hardship because of coronavirus.
“That’s why I will continue to call fo for exceptional action for exceptional ti times and support the great work that Marcus Rashford is doing to stop children going hungry.”
Ms Hardy said the result of Wednesday’s vote was another broken promise from the Government.
Ms Hardy said: “The vote by th the government to deny free school meals for the most at-risk children means that more than 17,500 children in Hull and the East Riding will go hungry.
“This doesn’t even touch upon the b broken “levelling-up” promise from th the Government nor the North-south divide, this is plain and simple abandoning thousands of hungry children during the worst winter we have seen in generations, and I, for one, think this is just not acceptable.”
Haltemprice and Howden MP
David Davis and East Yorkshire MP Greg Knight, Conservatives who voted against the motion, did not respond to a request for comment.
Conservative Party headquarters (CCHQ) said in statements on Twitter the Government was already pledged £63m to support struggling families, including with free school meals.
CCHQ added an extra £9bn had been put into the welfare system to help the 1.4m eligible children and that changes to universal credit meant 50,000 more would receive free school meals by 2022.