Rosie Wrighting MP: Free school meals expansion will help thousands of local children

Many youngsters are growing up being denied the things most families should be able to take for granted.

And they aren’t oblivious to the struggle. It shapes them, for better and for worse, into the adults they become.

But under the Conservatives too many children were plunged into hardship – with 900,000 more children in poverty as they left government.

That’s not something I am willing to allow.

That is why I am proud to say that, as part of our Plan for Change, Labour is extending free school meals to children with a parent in receipt of universal credit.

That’s over half a million more free lunches across England, on top of the 3 million already dished out every day – bringing the numbers up towards 6,490 here in Kettering.

That’s 3,000 more than the number of pupils here currently entitled to benefit-based free school meals, according to the 2024/25 school census from January.

Nationally, this expansion will pull a full 100,000 children out of poverty entirely. It’ll put a full £500 back in parents’ pockets and remove one significant financial worry.

And it’ll give every child that needs it a full belly come dinner time – stopping them messing about in class.

It’ll give every child a better chance to succeed, and a better chance to get on.

It’s a game changer for every hard-working mum and dad from Weston by Welland in the north of the constituency to Burton Latimer in the south, Braybrooke in the west to Stanion in the east, and everyone in between who just wants to do a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay and be able to provide for their family.

This is Labour’s Plan for Change in action but I know that more still needs to be done.

That’s why we’re getting on with free breakfast clubs, with 750 already up and running including at Compass Primary Academy in Kettering, another £450 saving.

Labour’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which is going through Parliament, will bring down the cost of school uniforms, another £50 saving.

The massive expansion in government-funded childcare hours to 30 a week comes into effect from September, another £7,500 saving.

And our child poverty strategy later this year will take us even further in tackling the stain of child poverty across the country.

Working families across Kettering are doing their best to provide for their families, working all hours to give their children the very best start.

At last, they have a government on their side – a Labour government.

Better lives for working people. Opportunity for children to thrive no matter their background.

Those are our driving forces, and that’s the change we’re delivering.