Parents’ responsibility to feed kids

MARCUS Rashford’s campaign for school meals to be provided to children in school holidays whose parents are on benefits is an emotive subject and in many people’s eyes is a worthy cause.

Nobody in their right mind would wish to see any child go hungry but we should ask the question who should be responsible for feeding their children? The answer must be the parents.

Those parents on Universal Credit have been given an extra £20 a week as well as receiving child benefit of £21.05 for the first child and £13.95 for any additional child, meaning a family with one child would receive an extra £41 per week or with two children £55 per week, and this is for every week of the year, not just for term time.

It may not be a popular thing to say but it is misleading to believe that parents do not receive enough money to feed their offspring at weekends and school holiday time, which is the only time they have to step up to the plate since free school meals only apply when they are actually at school, which accounts for about 200 days out of 365.

The extra Universal Credit applies to every week of the year.

It’s easy for opposition MPS to point the finger at Boris Johnson as if he were the Devil incarnate, virtually accusing him of trying to starve children, without acknowledging the facts.

They of all people should know, with their knowledge of trade union practices, that a rise in basic pay is preferable to any bonus scheme, and the ‘free school meals in the holidays’ is the bonus part of this, and not nearly as generous as Boris’s plan.

As any Opposition member knows only too well ‘Where there’s a bandwagon, jump on it quickly before it goes’.

Edward Kynaston Lydney