News over the last few days has been dominated by the vote in the House of Commons to deny help for children who usually get free school meals over this half-term and Christmas. This is a real disgrace – the 322 Tory MPs who voted against free school meals being extended have a basic parliamentary income of over £26m (also more than the total COVID-relief given to Greater Manchester). And of course they also claim thousands in expenses – Matt Hancock claimed over £60k last year – and have all their meals at the Commons subsidised by us. The huge response by ordinary people to make sure no child goes hungry is amazing, but shouldn’t be needed in one of the richest countries in the world.
However, we know that some of our members and their children will be affected by this, so please see below for a link where children and young people who are entitled to free school meals can go this week:
https://helpoutwhenschoolsout.co.uk
And here’s the links to a couple of petitions you may want to spend a few minutes signing. The first is by Marcus Rashford calling for the government to provide free school meals in the holidays, and the second is calling for an end to MPs subsidised meals:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/554276
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-mps-entitlement-to-free-work-meals