1 Free School Meals (1)

May 06, 2026 15:07 · 2:38 · English · Whisper Turbo · 2 speakers

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Lecture Index

0:00

S… Speaker 2 (1 Free School Meals (1))

The Prime Minister says giving free school meals to children of all families in England on universal credit is a down payment on tackling child poverty. The government estimates the expansion will benefit 500,000 children, but campaigners say scrapping the child benefit cap would be more effective. Here's our political correspondent, Harry Horton.

0:21

S… Speaker 1 (1 Free School Meals (1))

At this primary school in Birmingham, more than three in five children receive free school meals. And pupils here know a full stomach makes learning much easier. You need to eat so you get more energy and then you can learn more. After lunch, when you're full, what difference does that make in your lessons? Once I've got my food, my brain, it works much better.

0:49

S… Speaker 1 (1 Free School Meals (1))

The government wants fewer children going hungry, and so from next September, any child in England whose parents receive universal credit will be eligible for free school meals. The headteacher here thinks that will be a huge help, but says schools like hers need more money. I think for us as schools, it's about funding. What we've noticed over the last eight to nine years is the services around families and communities has diminished.

1:16

S… Speaker 1 (1 Free School Meals (1))

that sort of social support, children's centres. We've tried to fill that gap here with providing school uniform, free beds, bedding, food parcels, hampers, but we do that all from our school budget share. As the Prime Minister listened to children's stories in Essex this morning... Are the heroes going to win in the end? ..he hoped his changes to free school meals would lift 100,000 children out of poverty.

1:45

S… Speaker 1 (1 Free School Meals (1))

This is a down payment on child poverty. We've got a task force, it'll come out with a strategy. I want to get to the root causes of child poverty. One of the greatest things the last Labour government did was to drive down child poverty. I'm determined we will do that. But he's under pressure to do much more to tackle child poverty by lifting the two-child benefit cap.

2:07

S… Speaker 1 (1 Free School Meals (1))

Well, the two-child limit is by far the biggest and most important thing that the government will need to do in the child poverty strategy. We've said that a child poverty strategy without lifting the two-child limit just isn't credible. We're hoping for an announcement on that later in the year. Not every government department will be served the budget it wants at next week's spending review, when we might learn how far the Prime Minister is willing to go to reduce child poverty.

2:35

S… Speaker 1 (1 Free School Meals (1))

Harry Horton, ITV News, Birmingham

This transcript was generated by AI (automatic speech recognition). May contain errors — verify against the original audio for critical use. AI policy

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