PMQs: food fight breaks out over free school meals scandal

New year, same old shambles. Today marked 2021’s first Prime Minister’s Questions, the first in almost a month and in case you were hoping for a smoother ride this time around, you are in no such luck. When the clock struck 12, it was time for the main players to take to the green pitch. On one side we had Captain Hindsight of the reds, Sir Keir Starmer, and on the other side, we had Captain Brexit of the blues, Boris Johnson.

The Leader of the Opposition, Marcus Rashford, Sir Keir Starmer, was quick to kick the first political football: the vaccine process. Starmer nasally asked his opponent when the round-the-clock vaccine centres would be open and rolled out to the public. Interestingly, Starmer’s question provoked Johnson to commit to the 24/7 rollout, as Johnson replied that “we would be going to 24/7 as soon as we can.”

Starmer then reminded Johnson of his pre-Christmas claims that there was a “significant reduction in the virus” and no need for more lockdowns. To justify his attack on Johnson’s falsehoods, he presented the startling statistic that since the last PMQ’s, “17,000 people have died of Covid-19, with over a million new cases.” “How did the Prime Minister get it so wrong?”, Starmer queried.

Johnson took to the dispatch box to kick away such claims, arguing that he became aware of the new highly transmissible variant two days after that statement. Johnson provided a glimmer of optimism from his line of defence as he went onto say that lockdown measures were “starting to show signs of some effect.”

This revelation was not a satisfactory answer for Captain Hindsight who repeated his classic trope of calling for tougher restrictions: “Every time there is a decision to take, the Prime Minister gets there later, the current restrictions are not enough, stronger is needed.” The Labour leader asked why the restrictions were weaker now than they were last March when we are “seeing higher infection rates, death rates and hospital admissions.”

Both players took a while to warm up to their first match of the term, but when Starmer turned to the “latest free school meals scandal”, it was a solid goal. Starmer began by explaining how “we have all seen the images of disgraceful food parcels for children costed at about £5 each – that’s not what the Government promised and that is nowhere near enough. So can I ask the Prime Minister, would he be happy with his kids living on that?”

Aware of the many mouths to feed, Johnson jumped to attention to stress how the parcels were “disgraceful” and an “insult to the families that have received them.” Johnson then cattily remarked how he was grateful to Marcus Rashford for: “doing a comparable job to the right honourable gentleman for holding the Government to account.”

The savage score propelled Starmer to waving a paper across to his opponent: “I have checked the guidance on free school meals, I’ve got it here, and the current guidance is for items that are the very ones you have just called disgraceful.” A photo is now being circulated on social media, published by Starmer, which shows striking similarities between the meal parcels and the Government’s guidance.

Johnson only managed to get in “hypocritical and absurd” before the Speaker drew a yellow card. “I don’t believe anybody is a hypocrite in this chamber. I think we need to be a little bit careful about what we say to each other.” Johnson then attempted to make a softer case, saying that Starmer had a “lamentable approach throughout this pandemic – can I get away with that?”, Johnson asked the Speaker with sunken eyes as if he were asking his strict Eton schoolmaster for exoneration. The Speaker denied any leeway and criticised Johnson for not answering the questions at hand; reminding him it was Prime Minister’s Questions and not the Prime Minister’s Questions and no answers.

Aside from Captain Hindsight, there were questions from other MP’s covering everything from the shortage of vaccine supplies (Daisy Cooper, Lib Dem, St Albans) to flood risk (Andrew Percy, Con, Brigg & Goole) to musicians touring in the EU (Kevin Brennan, Labour, Cardiff West).

It was a hot-headed comeback for both players in the first PMQ’s of the season – where predictably; vaccination rollout, lockdown measures and free school meals dominated the airwaves and provoked bitter exchanges. If the Starmer-sceptics are still concerned after today that his grilling of Johnson is too rare, the liaison committee commencing at 3:30 will make sure that he’s served well-done.