Kids won’t get free school meals over the half-term break and Christmas

KIDS won’t get free school meals over the half-term break and Christmas holidays, Downing Street claims.

No10 has ignored football star Marcus Rashford’s plea to extend the scheme which helped 1.5 million poor kids stay well fed during the lockdown.

The England star put huge amounts of pressure on Boris Johnson to help kids entitled to free school meals get vouchers worth £15 every week of half-term and the summer holidays.

And Mr Rashford has been behind the new push to extend the vouchers for kids during the October half-term and the Christmas holiday.

But a Downing Street spokesperson claimed, “We are in a different position now.

“It’s not for schools to regularly provide food to pupils during the school holidays.”

Mr Rashford slammed Downing Street’s rejection on Twitter, “Merry Christmas kids…

“It’s also not for food banks to feed millions of British children but here we are 250 per cent increase in food poverty and rising…

“This is not going away anytime soon and neither am I…”

Senior Tory MP and Chairman of the Education Select Committee Robert Halfon said Mr Johnson and the Department for Education need to urgently reconsider the policy, warning soaring unemployment rates will leave kids and families starving.