Tory MP blames ‘chaotic parents’ for sending children to school hungry
A Tory MP has been blasted after claiming ‘chaotic parents’ are to blame for sending children to school hungry.
Former minister John Penrose suggested some parents are at fault for kids being unable to concentrate, with the government facing a growing backlash over not extending free school meals for poorer pupils.
In a letter to a constituent defending voting against the initiative backed by Marcus Rashford, Mr Penrose railed against parents sending children to school without breakfast. He argued that people should focus on the root causes of poverty and criticised ‘sticking plaster’ solutions that ‘increase dependency’ on state support.
It comes as Boris Johnson faces a huge public backlash over refusing to extend the meals into half-term and beyond, with Manchester United and England footballer Marcus Rashford leading a widely-praised campaign on the issue.
Backbencher Mr Penrose, who is married to NHS Test and Trace chief Baroness Dido Harding and is also the Government’s ‘Anti-Corruption Champion’, wrote: ‘Practical measures which make a genuine difference to the causes of poverty include things like the Pupil Premium, which gives schools extra funding for disadvantaged pupils; breakfast clubs, which help children with chaotic parents who send them to school without breakfast so they can’t concentrate properly…’
Labour’s shadow education secretary Kate Green hammered Mr Penrose for the comments and said it is not too late to ‘do the right thing’ and back free school meals over the Christmas holiday.
She said: ‘It is completely unacceptable for a Conservative MP to blame parents for the challenges created by his own Government’s chronic incompetence.
‘Children are at risk of going hungry because of a decade of stagnant wages and cuts to social security.
‘Not only have the Conservatives voted against helping these children, they are now blaming their parents.’
The letter, which was posted to Twitter by a man saying he is a constituent of the Weston-super-Mare MP, comes after a separate controversial comment from Conservative colleague Ben Bradley.
The Mansfield MP, who later argued his remark was ‘totally taken out of context’, replied to a tweet that described the free school meals programme as ‘£20 cash direct to a crack den and a brothel’ by saying: ‘That’s what FSM vouchers in the summer effectively did…’
The Mirror reported that Mr Penrose had defended his letter.
He told the paper: ‘I’m afraid this says more about the small anti-Tory prejudices of a couple of local Labour activists than about what’s really in my letter, which is clearly about how breakfast clubs can be a valuable way of dealing with one of the causes of poverty, not about everybody else who uses breakfast clubs too.’
Mr Penrose’s wife, Baroness Harding, has faced major criticism over her handling of the coronavirus Test and Trace system, with the system performing record-breakingly badly last week.
Shadow health minister Justin Madders said: ‘He (Mr Penrose) ought to look at the management of Test and Trace if he wants to know what chaotic really is.’
Ministers are examining how holiday clubs could be used to feed hungry children in England in an effort to resolve the free school meals row.
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