00:00Free school meals are being expanded in England to support low-income families.
00:05Yes, so from September 2026, which is the next school year,
00:09all pupils whose families claim universal credit will qualify,
00:12scrapping the current £7,400 income cap.
00:15So, is it the state's responsibility to feed your children,
00:20or is this more money being spent with little return?
00:24Well, joining us now is the TV presenter, Anna Bolter.
00:27Anna, what do you make of this new announcement?
00:31It's another deflection, honestly speaking.
00:34It's not free. I really wish we could just get back to basics.
00:37There is nothing free about this. It is taxpayer-funded food for children.
00:42I personally hate the terminology free school meals because I don't think it does the children any good,
00:46and it's not true. It's not free. It's a political choice as to where your money's going.
00:51And my interpretation is it's another state intervention on how we bring our children up
00:57and how families are run, because it's not parental choice anymore, is it?
01:02I almost think we're starting at the wrong end of the scale here.
01:06Children who need food should be fed. The end.
01:08There's never going to be an argument against that.
01:11But all this is doing is moving the threshold,
01:14a bit like you were just saying with the winter fuel payments.
01:16We're just moving the threshold out, allowing a few more in,
01:20pushing a few more out,
01:21and taking away from a parent's responsibility of feeding your children.
01:26I mean, Keir Starmer says it's common sense that children who are hungry won't do well at school.
01:30But is it not common sense that if you have children, you should feed them?
01:34Well, traditionally, yes.
01:37But Anna, I'm glad you make the point that it's not free,
01:39because it is very annoying when people say things are free that are paid for
01:43by people who pay their taxes every day.
01:45But also, because I'm not sure the state necessarily will get good value for the money it puts in,
01:53I mean, contracts.
01:54Do you think they're going to be paying the right price for the food that they're dishing out,
01:58or do you think they're going to be paying against the odds?
02:00Well, let's look at what we've already got with free school meals.
02:03So schools and their budgets can't even afford to cover the cost of existing free school meals.
02:08So that's the state of play at the minute.
02:10So without all of these extra children in September 25 and 26,
02:15and again, if it's so important, why are they hungry for another year?
02:19If it's that high on the agenda, why are we waiting another year before we feed them?
02:23To me, it says more distraction from what other messes are going on in the government
02:27and a bit more gaslighting, but that's only my opinion.
02:30But in terms of bang for your buck, you know, we've got 60p for a child having a breakfast.
02:35And we know that out of that 60p, we have to cover staff costs.
02:39We have to cover running the actual breakfast club.
02:42How much of that is going into the food?
02:45We also know that children are having double breakfasts.
02:47So what tells us that lunch, well, they're having breakfast at home
02:52and then they're putting pressure on mum and dad,
02:54please can I go to breakfast club because it's fun
02:56and they all sit around and have, you know, a bowl of whatever and a piece of toast.
02:59And mum and dad go, yeah, okay, well, off you pop.
03:02And they get the 60p beige breakfast.
03:04Now, what's going to be dished up at lunchtime?
03:08Because if we can't afford the existing free school meals
03:12that we're allegedly dishing up now, and we're cutting budgets,
03:16we're cutting courses, we're making teachers redundant,
03:20we're not improving our actual schools, where's this money coming from?
03:24And again, it's another brilliant headline, isn't it?
03:27We're giving free school meals.
03:29Where from?
03:30You know, do we grow money trees at schools as well?
03:32Is it, here's your free school lunch and now for pudding,
03:35you can go and get a tenner off the money tree that's growing outside.
03:39It's utter rubbish.
03:41Sorry.
03:41And it's worth stressing, this isn't children who are already,
03:45obviously a certain section of children are already on free school meals.
03:49Those on the poverty line have free lunches at schools already.
03:53This is those children who aren't on the poverty line,
03:56but the next step on, the next half million children.
03:59It's going to cost a billion pounds, we expect, across the country.
04:05I mean, this is not funny money.
04:07This is serious money.
04:09Well, it is.
04:10And again, it's that cheap headline of we're putting 500 pounds in your pocket.
04:14I mean, these pockets must have holes in them because nobody's seeing the money that's going in
04:19these pockets.
04:19And I think if you looked at what families would actually like out of that huge budget that you've
04:25just said, they'd probably like the cost of existence.
04:27And it's not cost of living, it's cost of existence to come down.
04:31And if they were not having to spend the astronomical fees on their energy bills,
04:35their own food bills, their rent, their mortgages, you know, just living,
04:40there may be more money in the pot to provide an actual family meal where we all sit around
04:45the table and talk to each other, argue, you know, that's what happens in families.
04:49That's the central nucleus of a family.
04:52It's where children develop.
04:53Well, absolutely.
04:54And I'm going to have to leave it there.
04:55But thank you very much indeed.
04:57Speaking from the heart there, good stuff.
04:59Anna Bolter, TV presenter there.
05:01Not much I disagreed with there, I must say, Tom.
05:03No, absolutely passionately put.
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