Boris Johnson U-Turns on Kids’ Meals After Soccer Star Campaign

(Bloomberg) -- Boris Johnson bowed to pressure to provide free meals for Britain’s poorest children over the summer after a campaign led by England soccer star Marcus Rashford.

The prime minister’s office said 120 million pounds ($152 million) will be made available to feed 1.3 million children in England during the six-week school break after people from across the political spectrum called on him to drop his opposition to the plan.

Rashford, a 22-year-old Manchester United striker whose family relied on free school meals, wrote to MPs this week calling for the support to continue in the school vacation. During the coronavirus pandemic, children in low-income households have received food parcels or vouchers, but ministers said it would stop at the end of term.

“This is a specific measure to reflect the unique circumstances of the pandemic,” Johnson’s spokesman James Slack told reporters as he announced the prime minister’s u-turn on Tuesday. “It will not extend beyond the summer.” Slack said the 15 pound-a-week payment will be through vouchers to use in supermarkets.

A brewing backlash over the issue prompted the policy switch as Johnson faces mounting challenges on multiple fronts as a result of the pandemic.

Some Conservative politicians had already broken ranks and supported Rashford’s plea. MPs George Freeman and Robert Halfon, plus former Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson, said it would be right to extend the program into the summer. The opposition Labour Party planned a debate on the issue in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

Davidson suggested Johnson, who like his senior adviser Dominic Cummings was educated at an elite private school, lacked the personal experience of child poverty to see the problem.

Only a few hours before Johnson’s change of heart, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps had been sent onto the airwaves to defend the government’s position. He said free meals don’t normally continue out of term-time and said in a series of interviews that other funding has been provided to support families.

“This is another welcome u-turn from Boris Johnson. The thought of 1.3 million children going hungry this summer was unimaginable,” Labour leader Keir Starmer said on Twitter. “Well done to Marcus Rashford and many others who spoke out so powerfully about this issue.”

Healthy school meals, a cause made famous by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, has been a political flash-point in recent years. The Conservatives wanted to abolish universal free school meals and replace them with free breakfasts in 2017, but dropped the plan after Theresa May lost her parliamentary majority.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.