Sir Keir Starmer is facing pressure from as many as 40 Labour MPs to roll out universal free school meals for primary school children in England if he is elected to No 10.
Labour MPs told i there was “intense lobbying going on” urging Sir Keir to adopt the pledge as he draws up the party’s manifesto ahead of the next general election.
One Labour MP said support for universal free school meals in English primary schools, which would cost around £1bn a year, “goes right across all sectors of the party”.
They said pressure for Labour to commit to the pledge “feels very live and somewhat urgent”, with expectations that the debate could come to a head at the party’s National Policy Forum in Nottingham at the end of July.
The policy currently has the backing of “more than 20” Labour MPs, including senior frontbenchers, though another Labour MP told i that as many as 40 MPs in the party are privately pushing for Sir Keir to embrace the policy, mostly from the Labour left.
It comes as a petition being circulated by the National Education Union (NEU) calling on the Government to end the “epidemic” of child hunger in English primary schools has been signed by 41 Labour MPs so far, including many members of the former shadow Cabinet under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
“We can’t not do this. There’s the moral case which is apparent (we are one of the richest economies in the world yet we can’t find the money to feed our children) but the long-term economic case too,” one Labour MP told i.
