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MP Sharon Hodgson urges Keir Starmer to include free school meals expansion in election manifesto

30th May 2023 - 08:48
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Sharon Hodgson, MP for Washington and Sunderland West
Abstract
Sharon Hodgson, MP for Washington and Sunderland West, has called for Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer to include extending free school meals to all primary schoolchildren on their election manifesto during an exclusive interview with The Mirror.

The Mirror and the National Education Union are calling for every primary school pupil to receive free school lunches to ensure no child goes hungry.

During the interview with the Mirror, Hodgson said: “That stigma that a school free school meal [brings], it stays with you. I can remember being that kid getting the free school meal. You already know you're poor, you already know you're from a poor family. You do not need that reinforced when you're in school but oh boy it does.

"Often the most chaotic families and the poorest families are not the ones accessing the free breakfast offer. When you do universal free school meals it reaches on average 95% of the kids. If we did primary in the first parliament and the second parliament we could roll it out into secondary. I will always believe that is money well spent. I can point anyone who wants it to all the evidence.

"There's so many kids going in with an empty lunchbox and their friend shares. The teacher sees this and it's absolutely heart-breaking and it just doesn't need to be like that. This country has so much wealth."

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Written by
Edward Waddell