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Daniel Kebede, then general secretary elect of the National Education Union (NEU), joins a picket line at Regent High School in north west London, as NEU teaching members stage walkouts across England in an ongoing dispute over pay, July 5, 2023
BRITAIN’S biggest teaching union has called on Labour to include a commitment to free school meals for all children in its election manifesto.
The National Education Union (NEU), which represents more than 450,000 teachers, made the appeal as the party’s annual conference continued in Liverpool.
General secretary Daniel Kebede said that, last year, four million children in Britain and Northern Ireland lived in households that went short of food.
“In my 13 years as a teacher, I’ve seen child hunger rise astronomically,” he said.
“The Liberal Democrat and Green parties already back extending free school meals. So do dozens of Labour MPs, peers, mayors and councils.”
The NEU leader accused the Tory government of “failing our children.”
“Free school meals for every child in primary school is a policy [whose] time has come,” he said.
“It’s already being rolled out in Scotland, Wales and now London. It can be done across England too.”
