Hull MP slams Lib Dems over school food cash

Hull North MP Diana Johnson today condemned the decision by Hull's Lib Dem Council not to ask for Government cash to restore Hull's pioneering free healthy school meals policy.

Under Labour, from 2004 Hull had pioneered a new approach in the battle against childhood obesity by combining healthier primary school food menus with the abolition of means-testing for free school meals. This approach was highly successful doubling the take-up of school dinners.

This policy was scrapped by the new Lib Dem Council administration from September 2007, before the results of an independent study into the 'Eat Well Do Well' policy was published by the University of Hull showing the benefits of the policy.

The Government recently announced that it would fund further trials of universal free school meals. But now Hull's Lib Dems have announced that they are refusing to bid for this Government money to fund the policy.

Hull North MP Diana Johnson said: "Hull's Lib Dem Council have previously challenged the Government to come up with funding for universal free school meals. The Government has now done exactly this and invited councils to bid for the funding.

"But such is Hull Lib Dem indifference to the long-term health of Hull children, Lib Dem Councillors will not even bid for Government funding. This is a measure of Lib Dem determination to block free school meals for all Hull children and keep the bureaucratic and costly means-testing that has driven down the take-up of school meals over the past year.

"If Hull City Council had secured this funding, it could have meant parents saving £6 per child, per school week at a time when family budgets have been stretched. This is the same Lib Dem administration that spends a fortune of tax-payers' money doing up the offices of town hall bosses.

"This shows yet again that Hull is a Premier League City with a lower league Lib Dem Council."