Queues of people wait to leave empty plates in office garden of Tory MP who voted against free school meals

‘Lunch is not a luxury’ and other messages written on plates

Handout photo issued by Sadie Hasler of empty plates outside a Conservative MP Sir David Amess Southend offices in protest over the party voting against plans to extend free school meals over holidays (PA)

Protesters left dozens of empty plates outside a Tory MP’s office on Sunday after the party voted against plans to extend free school meals over the school holidays.

Southend West MP Sir David Amess was one of 322 MPs who last week voted against a Labour motion calling for the government to extend the programme in England until Easter 2021.

Locals in Southend stood in queues stretching down the street to participate in the protest over the weekend, which was organised by the All Rise Collective, a group of inclusive feminist allies in the community.

They wrote messages on the empty plates and left them outside the Southend West Conservative Association building. Slogans including ‘Lunch is not a luxury’ and ‘No child should go hungry’ were just some of the messages written on the plates.

Organiser Sadie Hasler, 40, from Southend, told the PA news agency: “Quite a few of us are mothers in the group, the moment you start thinking too much about them ever being hungry, it’s just heartbreaking.

“The situations people find themselves in are just unbearable. The stigma that comes with maybe being a single parent, and trying to do the best thing by your child, and society just kind of constantly wants to keep elbowing you in the ribs for it.”

The group shared their protest plan on social media on Saturday night, but were stunned to see just how many people were already queuing the next morning.

“There’s a massive underbelly of people that are absolutely horrified that we have two safe Tory seats,” said Ms Hasler.

“We really just don’t want to be invisible. We want people to know that they are being challenged. We’re just trying to do a really simple peaceful protest that was visual that we could share.

“Last night it was quite strange. It was the first time in the whole of lockdown while defacing some plates with heavily black-markered anger that I switched off, and it was really cathartic and peaceful,” she added.

People in other parts of England were inspired by the protest and decided to take part in their own area, including 69-year-old Robert Edge, who took a solitary plate to the Eltham Conservative offices in southeast London.

He told PA: “As an older person I am somewhat limited in my ability to show my displeasure at the way I feel the country is heading.

“But the #emptyplate (protest) seemed a safe, peaceful and easy way to lobby the local Conservatives, some of whom I know are becoming disaffected with their PM. If I can help them become more disaffected I have done something.”