Free school meals should be given to all children in poverty, Lib Dems to say

The Liberal Democrats will call for free school meals for all children in poverty which will lead to "better academic progress".

Munira Wilson, the party's education spokesperson, will also call for a national body for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) during her keynote speech on Sunday at the party's conference in Brighton.

Ms Wilson, who has been the Twickenham MP since 2019, is expected to tell the conference extending free school meals would give "more pupils a full stomach each lunchtime" and would lead to "better academic progress, better behaviour and concentration, better health outcomes".

She is expected to share a story about a constituent "who told me that she stopped buying her medication so that her daughter at college could afford some lunch".

"I've heard stories of pupils pretending to eat out of empty lunchboxes to hide from their friends that there was no food at home. That cannot be right in modern Britain," she is expected to say.

"A free school meal for every child in poverty would give 900,000 more pupils a full stomach each lunchtime. That means better academic progress, better behaviour and concentration, better health outcomes. But Labour have stayed silent."

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The SEND body she will discuss would take responsibility for children with the most complex needs and would pay any costs above a certain threshold so "the most severely disabled children can have their support paid for centrally".

Addressing current problems, Ms Wilson will say: "A system where tens of thousands of parents must fight the council in the courts to get the support that is their child's legal right.

"When parents win almost 98 times out of 100, you know the system is broken.

"A system where the only reason why dozens of councils aren't bankrupt is because they can keep SEND support off the balance sheet."

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She is also expected to reiterate the Lib Dem pledge to be a "constructive opposition" to Labour after the party won a historic 72 MPs at the general election in July.

On Saturday, after arriving at the conference on a jet ski, Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said his party will be "the best opposition in parliament, far better than the Conservatives".

He called out Labour for cutting winter fuel payments to millions of pensioners, saying there were alternatives to fix the economy, such as taxing the wealthiest instead.