Rashford Backs Urgent Calls To Expand Free School Meals

Marcus Rashford has backed calls to expand the number of pupils receiving free school meals to ease the cost of living crisis. The campaigner and England footballer believes the system should be changed to prevent "any child falling through the web of support", a representative said.

- Kate Devlin

But deputy prime minister Dominic Raab ruled out an expansion of free school meals, as he admitted that hearing stories of food poverty broke his heart.

Former education secretaries from both Conservative and Labour governments, as well as the mayor of London, charities and unions, have urged Boris Johnson to act as spiralling inflation sends food and energy costs soaring. Teaching unions have written to the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, and other ministers, asking for free school meals to be provided to all children in England whose families receive universal credit, as an immediate first step.