Scorn follows pledge for free school meals

Veteran Labour councillor Colin Inglis said the price of meals would drop from £1.30 a day to 50p by Christmas and they would be serving up free hot meals by next May.

However within hours of the announcement Liberal Democrats seized on remarks which appeared to show council leader Stephen Brady back-tracking.

Lib Dem spokesman Coun Dave McCobb said analysis of the previous free school meals showed that as take-up only increased marginally, the meals ended up costing £50 apiece.

He said: “Labour promised everything to everybody in the election campaign. There’s general acceptance that times are hard and money has to be saved. What Labour hasn’t said is what they are going to cut to pay for it.”

Hull Council was the first in the UK to serve free lunches for primary schoolchildren seven years ago under the then Labour administration. Research showed children were doing better in class and eating a higher quality of food at home as a consequence.

Coun Daren Hale, who is in charge of finance for Labour, said it was “too early” to say whether the charges would be dropped entirely as they only took charge of the council’s purse-strings at the annual general meeting yesterday.