Can we all agree that no child should go to bed hungry? – Kate Green opens free school meals debate

#EndChildFoodPoverty – @LabourUK forces parliamentary vote on free school meals after government refuses to change course 

Opening the debate on extending free school meals through the holidays, Kate Green MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, said:

“I am very pleased to open today’s debate on such an important motion – on behalf of children across our country who are at risk of going hungry, and all the families worried that their children will be hungry over the school holidays.

“But the truth is we should not need to be having this debate at all.

“In summer, when this issue was due to be debated in this House, the government saw sense, did the right thing, and ensured no child would go hungry over the summer.

“But this time, despite many families facing even more challenging circumstances now than they did four months ago, shamefully, the government is walking away from its obligation to hungry children.

“In their hearts, Honourable Members on the government benches, who rightly supported the extension of free school meals over the summer holiday, know that. And they will also know that the thousands of families who rely on free school meals to help them make ends meet will watch their votes tonight with great interest.

“The Right Honourable Member for Harlow and Honourable Member for Newton Abbot have said they will vote for this measure. I commend them for setting party politics aside to do the right thing, and I hope many more of their colleagues will join us.

“Over 1.4 million children benefit from free school meals. Nearly 900,000 eligible children live in areas subject to Tier 2 and Tier 3 restrictions. Their families face a furlough cliff-edge, an inadequate replacement system, and the deep fear of growing unemployment.

“So the question for Members opposite is simple.

“Are they absolutely confident that support is adequate and that no child in their constituencies will go hungry?

“We do know what the Prime Minister thinks.

“Downing Street said ‘it’s not for schools to provide food to pupils during the school holiday’.

“I cannot believe that I have to spell this out.

“It is the government’s responsibility to ensure that children do not go hungry.

“They don’t stop being hungry just because the school bell rings for the end of term.

“And surely our constituents send us as Members of Parliament to this place to vote to ensure that the children who most need our help – at any time of year – are protected?

“So let me say to Members opposite: put party politics aside tonight, and vote to extend free school meals for the sake of our children.

“After all, since the summer holidays, the situation has got worse, more desperate, for millions of families.

“But while the provision of free school meals is being closed, the gravy train is still open for business.

“£7,000 a day for consultants working on a test and trace system that doesn’t work.

“£130 million to a Conservative Party donor for unsafe Covid testing kits.

“£160 million profits for Serco, and an increased dividend for shareholders, because the government threw good money after bad on a test and trace contract that’s robbing the public.

“Yesterday a Business Minister said that extending free school meals is not as simple as writing a cheque.

“But why is it that the money only runs out when it is hungry children who need it?

“And I am surprised that there isn’t greater recognition on the government benches that families across the country are finding it difficult to manage.

“It was only a matter of weeks ago that national newspapers were full of briefings from friends of the Prime Minister reporting anxiety about how he’d provide for his family.

“He had a new baby and, with the loss of his lucrative newspaper columns, his friends said it would be a strain to manage on his £150,000 salary as Prime Minister.

“It is, frankly, contemptible that the kind of concern we read in the national newspapers for the Prime Minister’s finances is not extended to the millions across this country who are genuinely struggling.

“Imagine you’re a parent of one of the over 3,000 children in the Prime Minister’s own constituency who benefits from free school meals. To read one week about how hard it is to make ends meet on £150,000 a year, and then to see the provision of a free meal for your child taken away a few days later, is utterly unjustifiable.

“The fact that we need to have this debate is a sign of repeated failures on the part of this government.

“A failure of compassion.

“A failure of competence in not recognising the challenges parents face, and giving them the support they need to provide for their children.

“And a failure of leadership not to be clear and unequivocal that no child should go hungry in one of the world’s richest countries.

“But where the government have failed to show leadership there have been many others who have stepped up to do the right thing.

“I pay tribute to Marcus Rashford – as the MP for Old Trafford, I congratulate him on his late winning goal last night, and I hope he will score another late victory today when we vote on our motion.

“And I congratulate and thank the many others across the country who are acting and campaigning to end child poverty and food poverty.

“It brings me huge pride to see people come together and take action where the government are failing to do so.

“Co-operative schools are already committing to providing free school meals over the holidays – that represents the very best of the coop movement.

“A movement built on support for one other, helping your neighbours and your community, doing what is right for the most disadvantaged.

“Will the Secretary of State follow their example?

“Colleagues in the Welsh Labour government, and in Northern Ireland and some parts of Scotland, have already committed to providing free school meals over the holidays until Easter .

“Again, I ask, will the Secretary of State follow their example?

“Catering staff across our schools have worked flat out to fulfil their essential role in providing free school meals. They’re among the many low paid workers we have learnt to depend on during the pandemic. But many feel that their jobs and livelihoods are at risk

“Can the Minister tell us what steps are being taken to protect and support the jobs of school catering staff, and others who deliver this support to our children?

“Before the pandemic, there were over four million children growing up in poverty.

“In the months ahead, that number will only increase.

“Child poverty is a pandemic of its own. It is a pandemic that reflects the great evils still haunting our society.

“A society blighted by wages that are not enough for working families to make ends meet, a housing crisis that creates insecurity, and a social security system cut to ribbons by the Party opposite.

“Today’s proposals are not a silver bullet, and they will not end child poverty. They are a sticking plaster, but one that is badly and urgently needed.

“Needed by the 1.4 million children who could go hungry without them.

“By families worried about putting food on the table.

“So will the Secretary of State do what is right, and take this first small step to ensure that over a million children do not go hungry this Christmas?

“As I said at the start, this debate should not even be happening. The government should never have let things go this far.

“They still don’t have to.

“The Secretary of State can stand up now and do the right thing. He can listen to Labour, to campaigners, and to families across the country, withdraw his amendment, and support our motion.

“Sadly, I do not think he will do so.

“Yet months ago, Marcus Rashford asked the question that started this debate, and that saw the government extend free school meals over summer.

“Today I ask the Secretary of State the same simple question:  ‘Can we all agree that no child should go to bed hungry?’

“I commend our motion to the House.”

Labour will force a vote in Parliament on plans to extend free school meals over the school holidays, after the Government refused to extend support to more than 1.4 million children in the October half term. 

On Saturday, Labour called for the Prime Minister to change course and provide free school meals to all eligible children during the holidays – warning that if he did not do so a vote would be forced in Parliament. The decision came after the Prime Minister’s spokesperson rejected the call of campaigners, including Marcus Rashford.

Now, Labour has confirmed that on Wednesday 21 October, there will be a vote in Parliament on this issue led by deputy leader Angela Rayner MP. 

Labour has tabled a motion on which all MPs can vote to support or oppose the extension of free school meals. The motion calls on the Government to continue directly funding provision of free school meals over the school holidays until Easter 2021 to prevent over a million children going hungry during the coronavirus crisis. 

Kate Green MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Education, said:  

“Over a million children are at risk of going hungry over the holidays without access to free school meals. It is essential the Government provides this support urgently. 

“We gave the Prime Minister the chance to change course, but he refused to do so. Now his MPs must decide if they want to vote for their constituents to get this vital support or if they will leave families struggling to put food on the table.” 

Nearly a million children living in areas that are subject to Tier 2 and Tier 3 coronavirus restrictions are set to lose access to free school meals over the holidays, according to new analysis by the House of Commons Library.

The Library analysis, commissioned by Shadow Education Secretary Kate Green found that there are around 900,000 children living in areas subject to enhanced restrictions. The new figures show that 61% of the over 1.4 million children eligible for FSM are living in areas subject to the increased restrictions.

This will leave thousands of families facing a “double whammy” as the October half-term approaches – with incomes and jobs at risk while vital support for children is removed, as the Prime Minister has refused to extend the provision of free school meals over the holidays.

Labour has warned that parents will be at significant risk from the chancellor’s “sink-or-swim” economic measures, as they were almost twice as likely to be furloughed as other working people, creating the serious risk of a cliff-edge for family incomes.

Today (Wednesday 21 October) Labour will force a vote in the House of Commons on the issue of free school meals. Labour’s motion simply calls for the provision of free school meals to be extended over each school holiday from October half term to Easter 2021. But without the support of Conservative backbenchers, support will be withdrawn ahead of next week’s half term.

Yesterday, Labour’s Shadow Children and Early Years Minister Tulip Siddiq MP, wrote to Conservative backbenchers, urging them to defy Boris Johnson and support Labour’s plans to extend free school meals over the holidays.

Angela Rayner MP, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, said:

“This vote is about our values as a country and whether the government, in the middle of this crisis, is happy to let our children go hungry.

“Millions of families up and down the country are facing a bleak winter of real hardship as the furlough scheme is withdrawn and further restrictions are put in place without proper support for businesses, jobs and livelihoods.

“It is a moral outrage that the government will happily spend over £6,000 a day on consultants and line the pockets of Serco shareholders in return for a Test and Trace system that has collapsed whilst leaving almost a million children in areas subject to Tier 2 and Tier 3 restrictions to go hungry.

“No child in our country should be waking up hungry and having to face the day worrying where food might be coming from. But if Tory MPs don’t do the right thing today this vital support will be withdrawn next week and over 1.4 million children across our country will go hungry.”

Last week, Children’s Food Campaign sent a joint open letter to the Secretary of State for Education on behalf of 35 organisations on this subject.

In response to the debate in Parliament on Free School Meals, and the defeat of the motion to extend holiday support until Easter 2021, Children’s Food Campaign Co-ordinator Barbara Crowther says:

“We are profoundly dismayed that Parliament has rejected the motion to provide food support to vulnerable children during forthcoming school holidays. We thank all the MPs who spoke up for children today. We had hoped Parliament would unite, as this is not the time for children living in food insecurity to be used as political footballs.

“Our campaign has the support of directors of public health, head teachers, children’s organisations, food networks, school caterers and national education unions, as well as hundreds of thousands of parents, young people and teachers.

“We will not give up campaigning for all children’s rights to food. We hope the Government will reconsider and make its own decision now to unite with Wales and Scotland in supporting children through to Easter 2021, as well as move to adopt the longer term recommendations in the National Food Strategy.”

Labour is calling for the extension of free school meals (“FSM”) to all children who are currently eligible in all of the school holidays between now and spring 2021. This includes the coming October half term, the Christmas holidays, February half term and the Easter holidays. 

There are currently over 1.44 million children* eligible for free school meals, who could all benefit from this policy if it was enacted. 

Using pupil data as of January 2020, and Covid-19 restrictions as of 19 October 2020, there were  around 4.6 million pupils attending schools in areas subject to Tier 2 or Tier 3 Covid-19 restrictions and of these around 0.9 million pupils were known to be eligible for free school meals.

Conservative MP and chair of the Education Committee Robert Halfon expressed disappointment at Boris Johnson rejecting Marcus Rashford’s call for free school meals to be extended over the holidays. 

The Labour led government in Wales has committed to ensuring free school meal provisions for every school holiday until Easter 2021. 

During the lockdown parents were nearly twice as likely to be furloughed as those without children. 13.6% of parents were furloughed, compared to 7.2% of those without children, according to the Office for National Statistics. 

Data from the House of Commons Library has found that there are nearly 900,000 pupils attending schools in areas subject to Tier 2 and Tier 3 coronavirus restrictions:

Source: House of Commons Library analysis.

*Source: Department for Education, Schools, pupils, and their characteristics: Academic Year 2019/20, 21 September 2020