Several constituents have written to me about the vote on the expansion of free school meals in school holidays to Easter 2021, which unfortunately is the latest in a series of misleading Labour tactics during opposition days and is something I have written about several times this year.
Let me be clear – I entered politics to create opportunities for the people of Chippenham constituency and to support vulnerable residents. I would not and never would, leave children to go hungry as the story has been spun.
What happens is Labour use opposition day debates as a political tool to make it appear as though we are against something that in reality we support. They put forward a motion that forces the government to vote against it, often for procedural reasons, or the aim is being met by other means, or the unintended consequences have not been mitigated or it is incompatible with existing legislation.
They then claim that because the government voted against the motion, that the government must be against the aims – which is absolutely untrue in this case and in all others like this. As someone who says it how it is and doesn’t play political games, I see this as a dishonest tactic.
My focus is on our community and especially the vulnerable and those who need help the most. That’s exactly why I do so many surgeries and stalls in supermarkets, pubs, fetes etc so that I can reach out and find the people who need my help but would never dream of asking for it.
I have served as the Children and Families Minister and championed the needs of families in Wiltshire and thousands more across the country. I believe unequivocally that no parent should be in a position where they can not afford food for their child – indeed, contrary to what some of the reports are saying this week, this is not a controversial opinion. I can’t actually imagine how anyone would disagree with this.
Until this week, the Labour Party wholeheartedly supported the fact that the Government is providing an unprecedented level of support to children and families. This year alone, we have expanded free schools meals to cover the Summer holiday for the first time ever; we have increased universal credit payments; we have provided families with over £380million of supermarket food vouchers; we have built government-funded breakfast clubs and promoted nutrition in school; we have built £9million summer holiday activity and food programmes for children; we have drastically increased school budgets including for food; and we have expanded free school eligibility to include an extra 1.5million children – all in less than a year.
I don’t for one moment want to give the impression that I am under playing the effect of the pandemic because it has been and continues to be so very hard for our constituency and country. That’s exactly why we have given so much unprecedented support to those in need and boosted the Universal Credit standard allowance and Working Tax Credit by over £1,000 per year for the next 12 months. We have also provided nearly £1 billion of additional support for renters affected by coronavirus, by increasing local housing allowance rates for housing benefit and universal credit. Through our income protection schemes we have so far protected 12 million jobs at a cost of almost £53 billion.
On another note I do think I should point out that it is this Government that has expanded the eligibility of free school meals to more children than any other Government in over fifty years by offering a free school meal to every child in reception, year 1 and year 2, to those students from lower income eligible families in further education colleges and, most recently during the pandemic, to children of families on lower incomes with no recourse to public funds.
However I am not convinced that free school meals are the best or even the correct mechanism to deal with holiday hunger. Targeted support for low income families is a matter for the welfare system, not our schools. In fact unlike schools, the welfare system was designed as the safety net to provide direct support all year round. This can be seen in the increase this government has put in place both in Universal Credit standard allowance and Working Tax Credit basic element.
I have spoken before on the issue of holiday hunger and my concerns – it’s an issue I believe we need to keep addressing but not with a sticking plaster but a long term solution that also deals with the other associated needs. I believe we must target support to those that need it most with initiatives like the recent £63 million local authority welfare assistance fund to provide essential food and other items to those that need it – a fund which will be active over this half-term holiday.
This Government has committed in Parliament that it is prepared to do whatever it takes to ensure families and children have the support they need to get through this challenging time. So please ignore the empty political point scoring and let’s push for more cross party working on topics like this this! Please do get in touch if you or someone you know is struggling so I can check you are accessing everything that you are entitled to.
