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Keir Starmer vows to attack child poverty crisis after free school meals boost

5 days ago

Keir Starmer has insisted his Government will tackle the child poverty crisis affecting millions of kids The Prime Minister said his decision to expand free school meals to more than half a million more pupils next year was a down payment on driving down hardship He signalled there was more to come saying I was very proud of the last Labour government for driving down child poverty This is a down payment on what we will do on child poverty which needs to be seen in the round Speaking to the Mirror at a primary school in Harlow Mr Starmer said he was determined to make driving down child poverty part of his Governments legacy But he refused to say whether he would scrap the Tory twochild benefit limit which has been blamed for pushing families into hardship Pressed on the twochild limit he said I am very proud that we have done it in relation to child poverty I dont think there is a silver bullet Everybody who has looked at it will say there is no one thing that you can say if you do that then all else follows So thats why were looking at a range of measures He added I do very much want to get to the root causes of this because if youre really going to tackle child poverty in a sort of sustained way you have to get to the root causes Pressure is mounting on the Government to do more to help the 45million children growing up in poverty in this country Yesterday the PM announced a major change to free school meal rules in a major victory for the Mirrors campaign to end hunger in classrooms From September 2026 all children in families claiming Universal Credit will be eligible for free dinners saving parents up to 500 a year Around 500000 more pupils will be able to get a school lunch as part of a 1billion package The PM spoke to the Mirror after serving up school dinners to hungry kids at Downs Primary School in Harlow Essex He said What sat behind this is a real sense of Labour values of showing what a difference a Labour government makes My primary focus was on the attainment of children All the evidence is clear that if children have proper meals particularly at school then it helps them attain But also on the impact on parents because for parents this is a saving of the best part of 500 pounds per child in a cost of living crisis That is a huge difference for them The PM also praised the Mirror for its long running campaign on free school meals He said I do pay tribute to the mirror and the campaign that you have run for a number of years because it is the first time ever that any government has done this Im really proud that this Labour government has done it He added People often say whats a Labour government for Well today is a part of our answer to that question which is giving every child the best opportunity in life

Lizzy Buchan

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