MPs in Stamford, Rutland and the Deepings vote against Manchester United star Marcus Rashford's free school meal plan for children
MPs in this area have rejected a plan to extend free meals over the school holidays until Easter 2021.
Stamford and Bourne MP Gareth Davies, Rutland MP Alicia Kearns and the Deepings MP John Hayes, all Conservatives, voted against the provision of hot food for children until Easter 2021 during school holidays, called for by The Labour Party.
East Northamptonshire MP Tom Pursglove, also a Tory, was appointed to verify the count as a "teller for the noes" so his vote did not officially count. Meanwhile, Shailesh Vara, the Conservative MP for North West Cambridgeshire, did not cast a vote.
The motion was defeated by a majority of 61.
It came after England and Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford launched a petition urging the Government to make the change, over concerns for a growing number of children with little access to food as Covid hits families’ pockets.
Leading the vote, Labour’s shadow education secretary Kate Green said more than 1.4 million children benefit from free school meals nationally.
Almost 900,000 of those eligible were now in areas subject to tougher Covid-19 restrictions, she added.
“In the summer, when this issue was debated in this House, the Government saw sense, did the right thing and ensured that no child would go hungry over the summer holidays,” she said.
“This time, however, despite many families facing even more challenging circumstances now than they did four months ago, shamefully the Government are walking away from their obligation to hungry children.”
Her counterpart, education secretary Gavin Williamson, however, said the Government was in a different position.
“Free school meals are and always have been about supporting children with a meal to help them when they’re at school or currently at home learning,” he said.
“But it is our support through universal credit and our comprehensive welfare system that supports families.”