CLEGG’S £600M-A-YEAR ‘CAR CRASH’

MINISTERS have faced repeated calls to scrap Nick Clegg’s controversial free school meals scheme after it was dogged by problems.

The flagship Liberal Democrat policy, which costs £600million a year, was supposed to ensure all children received free lunches for their first three years of school.

But it was condemned as a ‘total car crash’, with schools reporting that they were forced to dip into their core education budgets to subsidise it. The scheme was rushed through in the year before the last general election by the Coalition, despite fears about a lack of proper planning.

Then-deputy prime minister Mr Clegg demanded free meals for pupils aged four to seven – a policy not in his party’s manifesto – as the price for agreeing to a Tory tax allowance for married couples. He described it as ‘one of the most progressive changes to our school system for a long time’ which would save parents about £400 a year.

He even told his party conference the policy would help ‘restore the people’s faith’ in the Lib Dems.

But critics said it was a preelection gimmick.

Initially, the Lib Dems promised all of the 1.5million children covered would get a nutritious hot meal, but this was abandoned because so many schools lacked kitchens. Heads were forced to order in cold lunches or pre-packed meals from catering firms.

At one Birmingham school, pupils aged four were served just one chicken nugget each. At another in Gloucestershire, cold meals such as bagels were brought in by taxi. A former Tory adviser claimed the policy was drawn up ‘on the back of a fag packet’.