Kate Osborne – 2022 Parliamentary Question on Poverty

The parliamentary question asked by Kate Osborne, the Labour MP for Jarrow, in the House of Commons on 16 November 2022.

Kate Osborne (Jarrow) (Lab)

In 1936, people from my constituency marched to Parliament demanding jobs. They were living in poverty and were hungry. Some 86 years later, 39% of kids in Jarrow are still hungry. Will the Deputy Prime Minister and the Government end that scandal and commit to providing free school meals to all 800,000 children—40,000 of whom are in the north-east—from households in receipt of universal credit?

The Deputy Prime Minister (Dominic Raab)

I thank the hon. Lady. She will know that we have extended the eligibility of free school meals to 1.9 million pupils. On top of that, there is the £200 million holiday activities and food programme and the £1,200 of direct payments to the most vulnerable. I gently say to her that we also need to keep an eye on the macroeconomic picture. The No. 1 priority is to get inflation down, and we will not be able to do that if we follow the Opposition’s plans.