John Redwood: Forget the silly soundbites and just look at the truth about school milk

If you listen to the debate, you would think that Baroness Thatcher alone abolished free school milk, leaving it just for the under-fives. Anne Milton and David Willetts came forward to query the costs and value of the last vestiges of free milk. David Cameron, seeing the political danger, intervened to stop them becoming heirs to the mantle of "milk snatchers".

What we need to do is a little detective work.

The biggest "milk snatchers" were Labour. In 1968, they took free

school milk away from all 11 to 18-year-olds. The Conservatives did not dub Harold Wilson a milk thief, but accepted this economy as part of the package to cut the excessive borrowing of that Labour government.

No subsequent government, including the Labour governments of 1997 to 2010, thought free school milk worth reintroducing. Most people cannot remember that Edward Short was Education Secretary for most of 1968 (I looked it up) when the free milk was withdrawn, because no-one ran a campaign claiming he left us short of free milk.

In 1971, Edward Heath's government took milk away from seven to 11-year-olds. This was opposed by Labour, who personalised it to the Education Secretary.

Labour have always treated Mrs Thatcher in a mean and personal way.

They dubbed her "Milk snatcher" rather than coming up with a phrase like "Edward Heath, milk thief".

Doubtless, if the Education Secretary in the 1979-1990 Tory governments had cut free school milk, they would still have personalised it to Margaret Thatcher, then Prime Minister.

The BBC website tells us free milk for five, six and seven-year-olds had gone "by 1980" without telling us which Minister removed it.

Nor did they name the Labour Ministers responsible in 1968 for the main cut. There's bias for you, after the account of how Margaret Thatcher had done her bit to cut it. People were so untroubled by the removal of free milk for five to seven-year-olds that few can remember who did it.

In office, Labour did not restore milk to primary school children, despite finding money for everything else, and despite still reminding people from time to time of their "Milk snatcher" jibe.

It is high time we moved on from these lurid lies and silly soundbites.

The truth is all three parties in power from 1968-2010 went along with the phased removal of free milk in schools.

Presumably they did so because they recognised there were better ways of helping children from low income families with dietary needs.

I am prepared to say I support the results of both Harold Wilson and Edward Heath's decision to remove free school milk as an economy measure, though I disagreed with many of the things both these Prime Ministers did in other fields. Any truthful politician should say the same, as no mainstream politician in living memory has campaigned to restore these "brutal cuts" from a long-gone era.

The intervention of the Prime Minister to save the milk also confirms what you have been reading here. The increases in cash spending allowed for in the next four years do not require as much pain and as many difficult cuts as the public sector wants you to believe.

If we can keep the free milk for the under fives, it cannot be that eye wateringly tough out there. It will still require some good management, of course – and there will still be public sector managers who choose to cut things we would rather they didn't, even allowing for the cash increases in the totals.

John Redwood is a senior Conservative MP and was a Cabinet Minister under John Major. He is chairman of the Conservative Economic Affairs Committee.