Conservative MP resigns as Government aide over rejection of free school meals plan

The parliamentary private secretary at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, is one of five conservative MPs who voted with Labour and against the Government last night in a bid to extend free school meals, that was defeated in Parliament, with 261 votes in favour and 322 against.

She said, ‘In these unprecedented times, I am very concerned to be doing all we can to help lower-income families and their children who are really struggling due to the impact of the virus.’

Ms Ansell, who is also MP for Eastbourne and Willingdon, acknowledged that vouchers were not a long-term solution - but they helped families struggling with the pandemic.

Chair of the education select committee, Robert Halfon, who also voted with Labour, told MPs at the opposition debate last night, ‘If we acknowledge that children risk going hungry in term time by providing them with free school meals, despite the provision of universal credit and the other things that have been mentioned by the Government, we know that they risk going hungry in the holidays too.’

Gavin Williamson, the education secretary, said it was right that, during an unprecedented and unpredictable period at the start of the pandemic, extra measures were taken. ‘But we are in a different position now that we have welcomed all pupils back to school, he said.

He added, ‘Free school meals are and always have been about supporting children with a meal to help them when they’re at school or currently at home learning. But it is our support through universal credit and our comprehensive welfare system that supports families.’

Rashford campaign

Responding to the vote on Twitter, footballer Marcus Rashford, who is leading a campaign on child hunger, said that child food poverty has the potential to become ‘the greatest pandemic the country has ever faced’. 

He added, ‘I don't have the education of a politician... but I have a social education having lived through this.

‘These children matter... and for as long as they don't have a voice, they will have mine.’

The Food Foundation, a charity working to influence food policy and business practice, tweeted, ‘The evidence on the scale of the problem is clear and inaction is not only inexcusable but a stain on our conscience.’

The first part of the Government-commissioned independent National Food Strategy, which was published in July, made three vital recommendations to prevent child hunger during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond.

The recommendations were also made in the House of Lords Select Committee Inquiry Report, Hungry for Change: fixing the failures in food, published in July. These recommendations are being supported by Marcus Rashford MBE, major food businesses, at least 20 charities and many others.

The Food Foundation said, ‘Three months have passed and the Government has not responded to the review. It must. These recommendations cannot languish in Whitehall leaving children to go hungry.’

Children's Food Campaign co-ordinator, Barbara Crowther, said, ‘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.’

Other Conservative MPs that voted in favour are Jason McCartney, MP for Colne Valley; Anne Marie Morris, MP for Newton Abbott, and Holly Mumby Croft, MP for Scunthorpe.