Cllr Oliver Cooper

• DURING Monday night’s council debate, on the cost of living crisis, I was infuriated to hear Cllr Oliver Cooper the Conservative leader of the opposition make unfounded claims about Camden Council profiting from the cheap price and lack of pupils taking up free school meals.

Rather than address the fundamental issues of universal credit cuts, rising fuel bills and the government’s woeful record of increasing child poverty, the Conservative leader instead decided to blame Camden Council for not doing more on free school meals.

Cllr Cooper’s comments highlight a classic issue with headline-grabbing Tory politicians. They lack a basic understanding of the facts.

Fact 1: Families must actively opt in to receive free school meals and the council has very little control over this.

For a number of reasons ranging from not wanting to be labelled or stigmatised, to a lack of knowledge that they are entitled, many families do not use free school meals.

In the school I used to teach at our headteacher ran a number of sessions before the opt-in deadline to help families understand why it was a good thing.

It is because of this that Cllr Georgia Gould highlighted the importance of auto-enrolment to avoid this very issue, and offered to work with the Conservative opposition to push for this nationally.

Cllr Cooper openly refused to acknowledge this and relied instead on petty political point-scoring.

Fact 2: Most schools are free to choose who supplies their meals and how much they cost.

As school meals, whether free or not, are a key part of a school’s offer to keep all of its pupils safe and healthy, they usually have the ability to choose who provides these.

For this reason, the claim that Camden Council is “cheaping out” is simply incorrect. They don’t decide what the cost per meal is; schools and their caterers do.

What is most frustrating is that Cllr Cooper seemed to use the topic of free school meals as a way to distract from the fact that his party leader had once again shown his disdain for the rules and refused to answer the question on whether the PM should resign.

Has Cllr Cooper conveniently forgotten that it was his party that refused to feed children during their holidays?

Has he also forgotten that it was his party who fast-tracked the contract for free schools meals vouchers to a company with no ability to deliver, by the government’s own appraisal?

It is, of course, right for free school meals to remain a key priority in debates on the cost of living, especially as prices sky-rocket and families continue to struggle.

But to use it as a way to avoid answering important questions about national leadership and the current crisis is deplorable. Camden’s children and families deserve better.

LOTIS BAUTISTA, WC1