North Wales MP claims UK Government’s free school meals reversal ‘definitely not a climbdown’
This article is old - Published: Monday, Nov 9th, 2020
A North Wales MP has claimed that the UK Government’s reversal on providing free school meals to children in England during the Christmas holidays is “not a climbdown”.
Boris Johnson’s government attracted widespread criticism last month after Conservative MPs voted down a motion calling for the extension of free meals during the school holidays until Easter 2021.
However, it has now changed its mind following an ongoing campaign by Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford.
Mr Johnson called the England international over the weekend to inform him of the millions of pounds worth of support set to be offered for children from low-income families.
Although the Welsh Government had already agreed to make this provision available for children in Wales, Aberconwy MP Robin Millar was keen to make his views known on the issue.
Commenting on Facebook, the Conservative defended his party’s stance on free school meals, insisting it had not made an about turn.
He said: “The government has made an important – and welcome – announcement on addressing food poverty in England this morning.
“So for the newspapers to call it a “U turn” is lazy headline writing and cheap political point scoring on a really important issue.
“If the media bothered to visit the community projects I did in my previous work they would realise what a disservice this does to the creativity, hard work and vision of local people.
“1. The announcement is completely in line with our own discussions on this page recently about the importance of addressing the underlying drivers of poverty. It is most definitely not a “climbdown” (BBC).
“2. The approach and £170m funding has taken into account the advice of the government’s “food tsar” (a co-author of The School Food Plan in 2013 which set out actions to transform what children eat in schools and how they learn about food.)
“3. Furthermore, it builds on community pilot projects the government has run to establish what works. These projects often need to be tweaked to be turned into nationwide programmes.
“My work before entering Parliament took me across a range of communities, in and around Manchester – now I’m enjoying learning about the projects here in Aberconwy doing similar work.
“What they all have in common is local people, trying their best and achieving great results by addressing underlying causes. It’s not always glamorous, it’s not headline grabbing but it’s essential.
“No government will get everything right. Every government benefits from scrutiny and question. By all means question the government’s speed of response and how to address immediate needs.
“But we should all think very carefully before running down genuine efforts to tackle the underlying causes of poverty.”
Responding to the news after playing in Manchester United’s 3-1 Premier League win against Everton at the weekend, Rashford welcomed the new funding.
He said: “Following the game today, I had a good conversation with the prime minister to better understand the proposed plan, and I very much welcome the steps that have been taken to combat child food poverty in the UK.”
He expressed some reservations that children would miss out on help because their family income isn’t quite low enough.
However, he added: “The intent the government have shown today is nothing but positive and they should be recognised for that.
“The steps made today will improve the lives of near 1.7 million children in the UK over the next 12 months, and that can only be celebrated.”
