Government may face legal action after ruling out free school meal vouchers for disadvantaged children this summer

Influential Tory MP urges rethink of plan to drop £15-a-week help with food costs

Schoolgirls eating lunch. (Getty)

The government is facing the prospect of legal action after Downing Street ruled out providing free school meal vouchers for disadvantaged children in England over the summer holidays.

Lawyers for food charity Sustain sent a letter to education secretary Gavin Williamson demanding urgent clarification of what measures he will take to prevent “holiday hunger” and warning of court action if his response was not adequate.

It came as the chair of the Commons Education Committee, influential Tory backbencher Robert Halfon, spoke out against the decision, which he said would hit hard-up families struggling with reduced incomes because of the coronavirus lockdown.

The government introduced a £15-a-child weekly supermarket voucher scheme to ensure that around 1.3 million youngsters eligible for free meals continued to get them while schools are closed, and after public pressure the programme was extended over the Easter holiday and half-term.

But Boris Johnson’s official spokesman said on Thursday that the scheme would not run over the summer, pointing instead to a separate £9m holiday activities and food programme for disadvantaged children.

Sustain said the alternative scheme covered just 50,000 children from low-income families – 4 per cent of those benefiting from free school meals in England

The Welsh government has already announced that it will continue to provide £19.50 per child per week funding for free school meal provision throughout the summer, giving children on one side of the border help with getting a decent daily meal which is denied to those on the other.

Mr Halfon said it was important for Mr Williamson and chancellor Rishi Sunak to reconsider the decision, which would hit families struggling as the support available from the government’s job retention scheme is phased out over the summer, leading to a probable wave of redundancies for furloughed staff.

Writing on Twitter he said: “Free school meals [are] needed over summer, especially if there are catch-up summer schools. All stats show well-fed children means better learning.”

Sustain chief executive Kath Dalmeny said: “Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, we have heard more and more stories of families with children struggling to put food on the table due to having too little money. The situation has got worse as parents lose jobs and income.

“Hundreds of thousands of children have gone without food and many food banks and local authorities have told us they cannot keep up with the avalanche of demand for emergency food aid.

“Hunger has no respect for term-time dates. Throughout lockdown, Sustain and many others have repeatedly called on the government to guarantee that vulnerable children get the food they need, including over the long summer holiday. We have tried everything we can think of to secure every child’s right to food, yet this week the government said it has no plans to help the majority of vulnerable children over the summer.

“Taking legal action is a last resort, but the time has come. Hungry children in lockdown cannot march to Parliament to demand their rights, so this is why we’re speaking up with and for them.”

The crowdfunded legal action is being supported by the Good Law Project, whose director Jolyon Maugham said: “No child should go hungry in what is one of the richest nations on earth. It really is that simple.

“The government acknowledged this when it introduced the food voucher scheme to ensure kids eligible for free school meals were fed when schools closed for lockdown.

“Nothing has got better since the scheme was introduced. Millions of families across the country still face financial hardship because of the pandemic. Yet the government still has not come up with a decent plan to ensure kids don’t go hungry. If they don’t, we will take formal legal action.”

By Friday afternoon, the appeal for £20,000 to fund the legal action had raised more than £5,000 at https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/dont-let-children-go-hungry/ .