Why we wanted to feed hungry children

“That’s according to the Conservative Government’s own figures and due to the low bar on eligibility. Last week, the Ashfield Independents tried to do something about it…”

At a Full Meeting of Nottinghamshire County Council, the Ashfield Independents, as part of the Independent Alliance Opposition Group tried to force the Tories to investigate providing every child with a free school dinner.

We worked with the Child Poverty Action Group and the End Child Poverty Coalition, over 80 organisations including child welfare groups, social justice groups, faith groups, trade unions and others to call for all primary school meals to be free.

Our call was backed by celebrities including Olivia Coleman, Jamie Oliver, Kate Winslet and Yotam Ottolenghi. 80% of teachers backed our call, as did thousands of residents across Nottinghamshire. Everyone did, except for Ben Bradley and his Conservative colleagues who run Nottinghamshire County Council.

There is strong evidence that free school meals improve children’s economic, educational, and health outcomes throughout life. Our call was sensible yet Ben Bradley and the Tories refused to even investigate whether universal free school meals was possible.

Instead, what happened last week was a case of political deceit.

The debate at County Hall should have been about what Nottinghamshire County Council can do to help hungry children.

Instead, it was dominated with a debate about Sadiq Khan, the Labour Mayor of London and his Ultra Low Emission Zone charge.

Ben Bradley MP claimed that free school meals in London were paid for by charging motorists in London.

The problem with that is that it was completely untrue. It was a lie. To quote Ben Bradley’s recent tweets – it was ‘Bullxxxx’.

Everyone knows that the income that is generated by the ULEZ is ringfenced, which means it can only be used for to pay for improvements to public transport in London. Ben Bradley knew this, he lied at the Full Council meeting, doubled down on it on social media and now has repeated his lie in a column in this newspaper. We wrote to him on Friday with clear evidence that what he was saying was untrue.

The reality is – as a Governor of Morven Park Primary School, I see first hand the impact of child poverty. Last week, we tried to do something positive to help. To see somebody, who already has 3 jobs and is after a 4th as our Mayor, lie, lie and lie again about an issue as serious as child poverty is an absolute disgrace.