Rayner MP calls for free school meals to be extended over school holidays

Ashton MP Angela Rayner has urged the government to continue to support over 8,000 children in Tameside from losing free school meals over the holidays.

Ahead of tomorrow’s crunch vote, Rayner MP says that a vote to stop the support would be a “double whammy” for families as half term approaches with incomes and jobs at risk.

The deputy leader of the Labour Party 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.

Tomorrow (Wednesday 21 October) a vote will take place in the House of Commons for the provision of free school meals to be extended over each school holiday between October half-term and Easter 2021.

Angela, who benefitted from free school meals as a child, 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“Millions of families up and down the country are facing a bleak winter of real hardship as the furlough scheme is withdrawn and further restrictions are put in place without proper support for businesses, jobs and livelihoods.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 But if Tory MPs don’t do the right thing today this vital support will be withdrawn next week and over 1.4 million children across our country will go hungry.”