£17m for MPs' food - but nothing for 800,000 children

Tom Kerridge talks to David Ellis about the effect of food poverty on school children, and why the Feed the Future drive matters

TOM KERRIDGE is perplexed. “Look, in the past three years, £17million has been spent on subsidising MPs’ meals in the Houses of Parliament 17 million quid!” he says, his voice tightening. So we’ve got the MPs eating subsidised lunches and dinners, but we’re not giving free school meals to kids whose parents are on Universal Credit...” The chef shakes his head in bewilderment. And you know, if you think that’s correct, then we’re at a wrong point in society.”

Sat in his bar and grill at the Corinthia hotel, Kerridge is on rattling form as he explains his support for extending free school meals to all children in poverty, whose plight was exposed by our special investigation and which has led to calls for change bya coalition of campaigning groups led by the Food Foundation. This campaign, called Feed the Future, calls on the Government to extend free school meals to all pupils in England whose parents are on Universal Credit amove that would help the 800,000 children who, though they live in poverty, are not eligible for a free lunch. If you qualify for Universal Credit, I'd have thought you qualified for your kids to get a meal,” says Kerridge. I was... surprised. It’s like we’ve got a lost generation of 800,000 children, and we know they’re the most vulnerable in society.”

Surprising, too, is the threshold for free meals. Only households with an income below 7,400 after tax excluding benefits) are eligible and, astonishingly, this is regardless of the number of children in the family. This threshold has remained since 2018 which, given the spiralling cost of living, looks cruel. The cost of food and drink this year alone has risen more than 13 per cent.