Free School Meals

Does the hon. Lady consider this to be a temporary measure while the covid crisis continues or a ...

I am grateful to the hon. Member. Initially, I would suggest that we urgently need a measure that...

I thank my hon. Friend for allowing me to intervene in the midst of her excellent oration. There ...

My hon. Friend makes a very reasonable point, and he is right to draw attention to the Prime Mini...

The hon. Lady is making a passionate and thought-through speech. Does she agree that the holiday ...

That is right. The debate this evening is urgent. Let me say to Members on the Government Benches...

There are roughly 14 million people living in relative poverty this year. In 2000, there were rou...

Perhaps the hon. Gentleman would like me to enlighten him on the poverty figures during Labour’s ...

Will the hon. Lady give way?

If the hon. Member will forgive me, no—I will make progress and let others in.

It gives me ...

I beg to move an amendment, to leave out from “House” to the end of the Question and add:

“...

May I take the Secretary of State back to children and schools? As my hon. Friend the Member for ...

I thank the hon. Lady for highlighting another Government initiative—FareShare receives considera...

As my predecessor as candidate in Blackpool North and Fleetwood, my right hon. Friend will know t...

My hon. Friend raises a really important point, which I was going to come to, about the important...

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I am looking forward with enthusiasm to turning to the hon. Gentleman, but let me just finish add...

I thank the Secretary of State for his kind words and for allowing me to intervene. Food bank usa...

I know that the hon. Gentleman is a man who has great passion and belief on the subject of educat...

I very much welcome the support being given to poorer families, but the Select Committee on Envir...

That is what is so incredibly important about our free school meals programme, which originally c...

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I know that the hon. Lady is eager to intervene—I am sure that it is an interchangeable point tha...

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I am going to give way to the hon. Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson) before the hon. Lady, bu...

I was not going to make an inter- changeable point; I actually wanted to pick up on a point that ...

The hon. Lady will probably remember that it was a coalition Government that the Liberal Democrat...

I was not going to make that point, but it was actually another example of a policy that you guys...

The hon. Gentleman raises an important point about learning for children. He has the privilege of...

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I will give way to my hon. Friend, but I hope Members will forgive me if I then make some progres...

These are obviously exceptional times, but temporary solutions tend to become permanent. By the w...

My hon. Friend raises important points about what is temporary and what is permanent. Indeed, the...

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I will make some progress, and then I will give way to the hon. Lady. In March we took the unprec...

I simply wanted to ask the Secretary of State, in the context of what he was saying about his par...

I think it is fair to say that Members on both sides of the House are united in their commitment ...

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I give way to my hon. Friend.

Order. The Secretary of State has been incredibly generous with interventions, but there are 43 M...

Was the Secretary of State moved, as I was, by The Times “Red Box” article that Marcus Rashford w...

My hon. Friend points out that this is a challenge that both parties face. There is a sense of co...

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I do apologise, but Mr Deputy Speaker has been quite clear about wanting me to make progress, and...

Before I call Brendan O’Hara, I should like to inform the House that the time limit will be five ...

It is a pleasure to speak in the debate this afternoon and to give the full support of the Scotti...

I was going to ask the Secretary of State this. We all know how important healthy eating is—not j...

That is not really a question for me—I am not and never would aspire to be the Secretary of State...

It will be five minutes for the Chair of the Education Select Committee and four minutes thereaft...

Throughout the pandemic, the Secretary of State has acted significantly to support families in fi...

My right hon. Friend is quite right about food insecurity, because that is exactly what the Envir...

My hon. Friend is absolutely right; I will come to that later. I am asking not for huge amounts o...

While I personally rather like the new artistic screen displays, I have been assured that technic...

As I said earlier, with over 6,000 children eligible for free school meals in my constituency, ta...

In 2010, the incoming Conservative Prime Minister promised to fix what he termed “broken Britain”...

My hon. Friend is making an excellent point about how the voluntary sector, individuals and local...

I am glad that my hon. Friend’s constituency has organisations like those in mine.

Organisa...

Free school meals have been part of the education system for more than a century, and they are an...

Order. I am sure that colleagues can see from the call list that a large number of right hon. and...

This debate is about priorities and it is about shame—the shame that, in the fifth richest countr...

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this important debate, not just as the Member of Parliament...

My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. Does she agree with me that the very fact that we h...

I thank my hon. Friend, and I absolutely agree with what she says.

There is no question abo...

I am very grateful to the hon. Member for giving way, because I think this is a very important is...

I thank the hon. Lady and, absolutely, we will be looking at this very broadly. That is the manda...

Order. May I gently point out that taking interventions has now meant that one fewer person can s...

I want to agree with two things that the shadow Secretary of State, the hon. Member for Stretford...

Listening to all the contributions, it is clear we are all committed to ensuring that no child sh...

I pay tribute to Marcus Rashford for his incredible campaigning on this issue, which meant that 1...

I strongly endorse what the Secretary of State has already said and commend the support for child...

Does my hon. Friend feel, as I do, that the Government could learn a lot from the Welsh Governmen...

My hon. Friend anticipates my very next point. It was the Liberal party that first introduced fre...

I welcome this debate today, as it gives us an opportunity to have a discussion on challenging is...

Does my hon. Friend agree that the charities he is talking about are able to be much more targete...

Indeed, and they tend to provide support in a wraparound way. Rather than just giving out a meal,...

I put on record my thanks to Marcus Rashford for an excellent goal last night, but also for suppo...

I doubt anyone in the Chamber tonight would disagree that we must focus the resources of the nati...

Any debate discussing children is rightly emotive. We must protect them, we must nurture them and...

This is a hugely important debate for many families in my constituency and across the north-east ...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Blaydon (Liz Twist). We spent time on the Select C...

Oh, for God’s sake.

That is what she did not say, and it is a very important principle.

The other important pri...

Coronavirus has blown away many of the old orthodoxies in politics, and this offensive idea of th...

I call Miriam Cates, who may wish to make a slightly shorter speech given that she made quite a l...

I will do my best, Madam Deputy Speaker.

The motion calls on the Government to extend free ...

Well, there we are. I call Mary Kelly Foy.

6.25 pm

As someone who personally benefited from free school meals as a child, I congratulate Marcus Rash...

Over the last decade, we have seen a shocking increase in poverty levels in the UK. In particular...

Unfortunately, I will have to start by referring to the comments made by the hon. Member for City...

It is not often that I find myself really struggling to follow an hon. Member, but I am strugglin...

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I will not take any lectures, and nor will I take any interventions, when it comes to children in...

I completely agree with everything that my hon. Friend the Member for Bradford West (Naz Shah) ha...

It is a great honour to follow such passionate and righteous indignation from my hon. Friends the...

As I stand here once again at the Dispatch Box winding up an Opposition day debate on free school...

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I hope my hon. Friend will forgive me for not giving way; I have a lot to get through.

Befo...

We

“are far more united and have far more in common than that which divides us.”—[Official ...

There are 3,829 children in Coventry South who receive free school meals. Talking to their parent...

Some of the hon. Lady’s hon. Friends made important speeches. The hon. Member for Blaydon (Liz Tw...

I now have to announce the results of today’s deferred Divisions.

On the draft Citizens’ Ri...

The Secretary of State gave us a spectacular display of number theatre: millions for this, millio...