You’ll be defeated on free school meals, PM told
SENIOR Tories told Boris Johnson last night that he faces a Commons defeat unless he agrees to provide free school meals during the Christmas holidays.
The Prime Minister is under growing pressure to perform a U-turn amid warnings that he has misunderstood the mood of the country.
A campaign led by Manchester United and England footballer Marcus Rashford, 22, is calling for the provision of meals to be extended through school holidays. Last week the Conservatives defeated a Labour bid to force the Government to feed children during the October half-term.
But Sir Keir Starmer said he will push for another vote if there is no change before Christmas and senior party figures warned the numbers will no longer be on Mr Johnson’s side.
The Children’s Commissioner Anne Longfield yesterday said: ‘To have a debate about whether we should make sure that hungry and vulnerable children should have enough to eat is something which is strikingly similar to chapters we’d expect to see in Oliver Twist, a novel published in the 19th century.’
Sir Bernard Jenkin, Conservative chairman of the liaison committee, suggested a U-turn was needed as ‘we have misunderstood the mood of the country’.
England is now the only UK nation not to provide free meals or vouchers over the school holidays, after Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland committed to extending the scheme.
Tory MP Tobias Ellwood, who last week voted with the Government to oppose the Labour motion, said it would be ‘churlish’ for ministers not to rethink their position.
But Cabinet minister Brandon Lewis said it was up to local councils to decide whether to provide meals during school holidays.
Tory former children’s minister Tim Loughton, who abstained on Labour’s motion, said he ‘will now lobby ministers to reverse this decision f or the Christmas break’.