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| UK coronavirus live: No 10 to extend school meal voucher system over summer holidays for England in U-turn | UK coronavirus live: No 10 to extend school meal voucher system over summer holidays for England in U-turn |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Boris Johnson makes U-turn on free school meals after Marcus Rashford campaign; Scotland and Wales also announce free schools meals will continue | |
| Boris Johnson is going to start his Commons statement in the next few minutes. | |
| Boris Johnson will shortly be making his Commons statement about the merger of the Foreign Office with the Department for International Development. | |
| Justine Greening, the Conservative former international development secretary, is not happy about the move, the Mirror’s Pippa Crerar reports. | |
| And Douglas Alexander, a former Labour international development secretary, has described this as “an act of national self harm”. | |
| These are from the BBC’s medical correspondent Fergus Walsh. | |
| Boris Johnson will be taking the government’s press conference at 5pm this afternoon, No 10 has announced. | |
| My colleague Marina Hyde has written a column in praise of Marcus Rashford. Here’s an excerpt. | |
| And here is the full article. | |
| Here is the story from my colleagues Heather Stewart and Helen Pidd on the No 10 school meal vouchers U-turn. | |
| Today’s school meal voucher decision amounts to the third clear policy U-turn from Downing Street during the coronavirus crisis. | |
| Last month Boris Johnson announced that migrant NHS and care staff would no longer have to pay the NHS surcharge (an extra fee added to the cost of their visa to cover the fact they might need NHS services - even though they also pay tax to fund the NHS). This was a policy that Johnson had defended in principle at PMQs. | |
| Less significantly, the Home Office had early announced that it was going to extend a policy allowing the relatives of NHS workers who died from coronavirus indefinite leave to remain in the UK if they were at risk of deportation so that the relatives of other workers, such as cleaners and care staff, were also included. This decision also came in response to public pressure for a shift. | |
| (Arguably the government has also performed various U-turns in its direct handling of coronavirus, for example in relation to community testing, or the lockdown policy itself, but in these areas policy evolved in relation to changing circumstances, and so they have not always been depicted as clear-cut U-turns.) | |
| Marcus Rashford has just posted this on Twitter about his school meal voucher campaign victory. | |
| Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed free school meals will be extended in Scotland to all eligible children over the summer holidays, matching the decision announced for England by No 10. | |
| The first minister announced at her daily coronavirus press conference that Scotland’s 32 local councils will be given a further £12.6m to extend free school meal provision until schools reopen from 11 August. | The first minister announced at her daily coronavirus press conference that Scotland’s 32 local councils will be given a further £12.6m to extend free school meal provision until schools reopen from 11 August. |
| About 175,000 children are entitled to free meals, and the Scottish government has been funding councils to provide free lunches during the lockdown at hubs, or through food or supermarket vouchers or cash payments. She said: | About 175,000 children are entitled to free meals, and the Scottish government has been funding councils to provide free lunches during the lockdown at hubs, or through food or supermarket vouchers or cash payments. She said: |
| Prof Morag Treanor, a child poverty specialist at Heriot Watt university, said last week in a blog the support offered varied considerably between councils, because there was no standardisation of provision. | Prof Morag Treanor, a child poverty specialist at Heriot Watt university, said last week in a blog the support offered varied considerably between councils, because there was no standardisation of provision. |
| Some provided £2.50 in cash per day in four-weekly payments; some provided prepaid cards for the Farmfoods chain at either £2 or £4 per day; some were given PayPoint vouchers which could be used in different shops; others provided food boxes or packed lunches. | |
| Treanor said this approach was flawed, and should be standardised. She said: | Treanor said this approach was flawed, and should be standardised. She said: |
| Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, has welcomed the Downing Street U-turn. | Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, has welcomed the Downing Street U-turn. |
| The Downing Street lobby briefing has just finished. And No 10 has announced a U-turn on free school meal vouchers for pupils in England during the summer holidays. | The Downing Street lobby briefing has just finished. And No 10 has announced a U-turn on free school meal vouchers for pupils in England during the summer holidays. |
| Pupils in England from poor homes will get meal vouchers over the summer holidays after Downing Street announced a significant U-turn. Yesterday No 10 was resisting the campaign championed by the England footballer Marcus Rashford and supported by Labour, and some Tory MPs, for the school meal voucher scheme to be extended to cover the summer holidays. But now, only hours ahead of a Commons vote on the plan, No 10 has backed down. The prime minister’s spokesman told journalists: | Pupils in England from poor homes will get meal vouchers over the summer holidays after Downing Street announced a significant U-turn. Yesterday No 10 was resisting the campaign championed by the England footballer Marcus Rashford and supported by Labour, and some Tory MPs, for the school meal voucher scheme to be extended to cover the summer holidays. But now, only hours ahead of a Commons vote on the plan, No 10 has backed down. The prime minister’s spokesman told journalists: |
| The scheme will cost the government around £120m and this will be would be in addition to the £63m already announced to help councils provide support for low-income families over the summer. The vouchers will be worth £15 a week, the spokesman said. Around 1.3 million children, or 15% of state pupils, will benefit. | |
| The spokesman refused to confirm that the campaign led by Rashford changed the PM’s mind but, when asked if he would be willing to pay tribute to Rashford, the spokesman said that at the briefing yesterday he said the PM welcomed Rashford’s contribution to the debate. | The spokesman refused to confirm that the campaign led by Rashford changed the PM’s mind but, when asked if he would be willing to pay tribute to Rashford, the spokesman said that at the briefing yesterday he said the PM welcomed Rashford’s contribution to the debate. |
| The Welsh government has already said its own scheme will run over the summer holidays. (See 12.34pm.) | The Welsh government has already said its own scheme will run over the summer holidays. (See 12.34pm.) |
| This is from Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister, on free school meals over the summer. He is pointing out that Wales is implementing the policy proposed by Marcus Rashford. | This is from Mark Drakeford, the Welsh first minister, on free school meals over the summer. He is pointing out that Wales is implementing the policy proposed by Marcus Rashford. |
| Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative chair of the Commons health committee, has just told Sky News that he thinks the government will have to do something to address the needs of families who cannot afford to feed their children properly during the summer holidays. | Jeremy Hunt, the Conservative chair of the Commons health committee, has just told Sky News that he thinks the government will have to do something to address the needs of families who cannot afford to feed their children properly during the summer holidays. |
| In evidence to the Commons health committee this morning Prof Derek Alderson, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said it was “completely unrealistic” to think that the NHS would be able to catch up with the backlog of surgery left unperformed during the coronavirus crisis within a matter of weeks. It could take “a few years” to catch up, he said. He explained: | In evidence to the Commons health committee this morning Prof Derek Alderson, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said it was “completely unrealistic” to think that the NHS would be able to catch up with the backlog of surgery left unperformed during the coronavirus crisis within a matter of weeks. It could take “a few years” to catch up, he said. He explained: |
| This claim ought to worry ministers because a government paper from early April, Initial estimates of excess deaths from Covid-19 (pdf), that was released at the end of last week along with a large batch of Sage coronavirus papers, showed that at that point officials officials feared that there could be 185,000 deaths over the long term as a result of operations cancelled during the crisis - assuming those operations were not rescheduled. That number would dwarf what was then estimated to be the number of people expected to die directly from coronavirus, 50,000. The report explained: | This claim ought to worry ministers because a government paper from early April, Initial estimates of excess deaths from Covid-19 (pdf), that was released at the end of last week along with a large batch of Sage coronavirus papers, showed that at that point officials officials feared that there could be 185,000 deaths over the long term as a result of operations cancelled during the crisis - assuming those operations were not rescheduled. That number would dwarf what was then estimated to be the number of people expected to die directly from coronavirus, 50,000. The report explained: |
| This is from Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, on Thérèse Coffey’s “water cannot be disconnected though” response to Marcus Rashford (see 9.09am and 11.05am). | This is from Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, on Thérèse Coffey’s “water cannot be disconnected though” response to Marcus Rashford (see 9.09am and 11.05am). |
| In an interview with LBC this morning Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, said that the government was likely to announce its plans for “travel corridors” - agreements with other countries for mutual exemptions from quarantine laws - at the end of this month. Asked when that announcement might come, he said: | In an interview with LBC this morning Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, said that the government was likely to announce its plans for “travel corridors” - agreements with other countries for mutual exemptions from quarantine laws - at the end of this month. Asked when that announcement might come, he said: |
| June 29 is the date for the government’s first review of its controversial quarantine policy, which came into force last week. | June 29 is the date for the government’s first review of its controversial quarantine policy, which came into force last week. |
| The FT’s Sebastian Payne has more on the “global Britain” statement coming from Boris Johnson later. (See 11.25am.) Johnson, a former foreign secretary, will announce a formal merger of the Foreign Office and the Department for International Development, Payne reports. | The FT’s Sebastian Payne has more on the “global Britain” statement coming from Boris Johnson later. (See 11.25am.) Johnson, a former foreign secretary, will announce a formal merger of the Foreign Office and the Department for International Development, Payne reports. |
| The Times’ Esther Webber has posted the line being sent to Tory MPs defending the government’s decision not to back Marcus Rashford’s call for the free school meal scheme to be extended in England to cover the summer holidays. | The Times’ Esther Webber has posted the line being sent to Tory MPs defending the government’s decision not to back Marcus Rashford’s call for the free school meal scheme to be extended in England to cover the summer holidays. |
| The Department for Education made more or less the same arguments in this blog on its website yesterday defending the government’s position. | The Department for Education made more or less the same arguments in this blog on its website yesterday defending the government’s position. |