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The dispute at the heart of the government over free school meals was exposed Monday night when the Treasury insisted that Gavin Williamson had never asked for extra money to fund the mid-term extension.
Treasury sources said the education secretary failed to request the £ 150 million to provide meals to 1.4 million disadvantaged pupils during the holidays.
They noted that the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, was irritated by the suggestion that his department was to blame for a dispute that has led to divisions in the Conservative party and allegations that the government is not supporting some of the poorest children in the country. .
“Nothing was proposed or mentioned from the Department of Education,” said a source.
Speaking on Monday as a campaign by footballer Marcus Rashford continued to gain momentum, Boris Johnson hinted that a replacement plan could be devised in time for the Christmas holidays.
But the prime minister also pointed to a £ 63 million local council fund as a resource for local authorities to pay for the poorest children to eat for half the period, prompting a backlash from local leaders.
It is understood that virtually all councils have spent the majority of their £ 63 million allocation, which was intended to cover a variety of Covid-19 areas of difficulty.
The government’s own guidance on the money, which was provided on July 10, read: “The government anticipates that most of the funds will be spent within 12 weeks.”
The Association of Local Governments said that the demand for help “had exceeded this funding now” and that the councils that were providing meals were doing so from their own budgets.
After days of vehement criticism following the government’s refusal to extend free school meals in England during the current semester and over Christmas, Johnson said: “We don’t want children to go hungry this winter, this Christmas, certainly not as a result. of any inattention from this government, and you won’t see it.
“We will do everything in our power to ensure that no child, no child goes hungry this winter during the holidays. That is obviously something that matters a lot to us ”.
Government sources said they were examining an expansion of children’s access to holiday activity clubs, including meals, though Treasury sources denied they had been asked to examine specific proposals. Last year, about 50,000 disadvantaged children used the holiday activities and the meal plan.
Local government leaders blamed the Treasury for the delay in expanding the scheme before its spending review, but Treasury sources said the Department of Education had never submitted a formal request for more funds to cover meals in the medium term.
Anger continues to rise among prominent conservatives. Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen became the last high-ranking conservative to break ranks with the government, calling it “wrong” not to fund the meals and launching his own local support.
“I’m not going to let party politics get in the way of doing the right thing,” he said. “At a time of great crisis, it is obvious that we must support our most vulnerable children and I believe that the government is wrong not to extend this scheme to the October semester. I hope the government will reconsider its decision ”.
MPs are furious at Downing Street’s strategy because of the damage done to the party, and blame both Johnson and Williamson, who has thus far avoided the brunt of criticism.
Conservative MP George Freeman, former health minister and head of Theresa May’s policy unit, also urged the government to change tack before Christmas, saying he regretted his “mistake” in voting against free school meals during the mid period.
“Having funded ‘eating out to help’ this summer, I don’t see why the cost of £ 20 million of free school meal vouchers for half the term is prohibitive,” he said, adding that the government should “ accept that we misjudge the mood and got this bad last week. “
He added: “Politics is not just about doing the right thing, but about being seen to be doing the right thing and reinforcing our nation’s best values through this crisis.
“While there are genuine political challenges about how to target the right help through the benefits system to those most in need, this week when parents are faced with no school meals mid-term, this is not the time to have the debate. The immediate priority should be to prevent any child from starving. “
Other MPs said privately that the strategy to defend the refusal to endorse Rashford’s campaign had been a mistake. A Conservative MP spoke of receiving at least 100 angry emails about the vote last week, when the motion to extend free school meals was rejected, and he knew of colleagues who had been sent many more.
“There is growing concern about the tendency to get into dead ends and then have to turn 180 degrees,” said the deputy. “It is not only the number 10 that does not relate properly to the parliamentarians, but also the departmental ministers, and they really should act as a bridge with the parliamentarians.
“The Department of Education is seen as one of the worst for this, and they have had a lot of U-turns. Their youth team is quite inexperienced and it is often they who should be communicating with MPs and catching up. The tone is set to number 10, but a good secretary of state makes sure they do all of this correctly, and Gavin [Williamson] it’s lost a lot of credibility in the last six months. ”Williamson came under intense fire amid the test results fiasco over the summer.
Another Conservative MP said the No. 10 strategists were too obsessed with not giving in to pressure from the press, which meant they often fell into “traps set by Labor.” One leader said they believed the government’s strategy was to attract only the voters of the conservative “red wall” MPs, many of whom had been critical of the extension of free school meals.
“Communication is inept but this is fundamentally an ideological battle. It is about attracting voters who believe that parents should take responsibility and many of them are actually working class voters, “said the minister. “The parliamentarians of the red wall are unconditional on this issue.”
