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.
Boris Johnson 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 Kate Green 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 Keir Starmer, 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.
Labour will use its other opposition day motion on Monday to demand that the government cancel the Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit cut planned for April, although the UC uplift will be needed especially as furlough ends.
Ministers are reportedly considering the idea of replacing the £20-per-week UC uplift with a one-off payment of £500. Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jonathan Reynolds described this as a “terrible policy” today.
Below is the full text of the motion on free school meals tabled by Labour.
That this House believes that families need more support during school and college closures; and that those eligible should be guaranteed to receive the full value of free school meals for the duration of the school year, including during all holidays; and calls on the Secretary of State for Education to set a deadline to ensure that every learner has the resources required to learn remotely, and provide a weekly update to parliament on implementing this.
Below is the full text of the motion on Universal Credit tabled by Labour.
Keir Starmer
Jonathan Reynolds
Anneliese Dodds
Angela Rayner
Bridget Phillipson
Nicholas Brown
Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit
That this House believes that the government should stop the planned cut in Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit in April and give certainty today to the six million families for whom it is worth an extra £1,000 a year.
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