‘Appalling’ sized children food parcels were in line with government advice
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has revealed that the miserly free school meals handed out to children this week by a private company were in fact in line with government advice.
Starmer hit out at Boris Johnson for distancing himself from the fiasco as the size of the meals had been dictated by Department of Education advice.
Surrey company Chartwells won a contract to provide free school meals for underprivileged children during the lockdown, with the value of the packages at £30 a week.
However, social media erupted yesterday as it was revealed that packages being sent out only contained around £5 of food that was not nearly enough for a whole week.
The issue was brought to the attention of Boris Johnson by Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford who has forced the government into two U-turns on providing more meals to school children during hte pandemic.
Johnson told MPs today that the parcels were “disgraceful” and “appalling”.
He said Chartwells had lost its contract and that children on the programme would now receive £30 vouchers a week instead.
However, Starmer revealed that Chartwells was in fact following government advice on what should be in the packages.
“I’ve checked the government guidance on free school meals, the current guidance published by the Department of Education,” Starmer said.
“It sets out an example parcel of a child for five days…’one loaf of bread, two baked potatoes, a block of cheese, baked beans, three yoghurts’ – sound familiar?
“That’s the images you just called disgraceful. He blames others, but this is on his watch.”
Johnson responded by saying it was “absurd” for Labour to attack the government on free school meals when it was “a Conservative government that institued free school meals, not a Labour government”.