As the education secretary announces the first primary schools to offer free breakfasts, Labour MPs question the commitment to fighting poverty. The government is trumpeting its policy of introducing free breakfast clubs into all primary schools in England as key to its efforts to cut child poverty, as ministers appear to have ruled out meeting the estimated cost of £3bn a year to end the two-child cap on benefits.
![[Bridget Phillipson]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/0313be47e0cac6c08ffe5f3920f4703923835f4d/0_92_2747_1648/master/2747.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, announced the first 750 schools that will become “early adopters” of breakfast clubs, saying that 67,000 of the 180,000 pupils set to benefit come from the most disadvantaged areas of England. The policy is now being sold not only as a way to improve school attendance, educational performance and attainment, but also as a primary lever for reducing poverty.
One of Labour’s general election pledges was to roll out the plan across the whole of England during its first term in office to drive up standards and improve opportunities for all. Announcing the first 750 schools to join the pilot scheme, the Department for Education said that breakfast clubs had “an important role to play in the government’s commitment to remove the stain of child poverty”.
Breakfast clubs have been shown to improve children’s reading, writing and mathematics, with improved concentration and focus. But Labour MPs said that while they strongly supported breakfast clubs, it was clear that the emphasis on the clubs helping to end child poverty was evidence of a wider initiative to “soften us up” to be told that the two-child benefit cap would remain.
They said there were now signals that ministers would reject scrapping the cap this summer despite the fact that most experts and charities say it would be by far the most effective way of reducing poverty. Introduced by the Tories in 2017, the two-child limit prevents families from claiming child tax credits or universal credit for more than two children.
A group of Labour MPs has been pressing for the government to meet them halfway by extending the cap from two to three children, which they claim would cost very little. But government insiders suggested that the idea had already been rejected by the government’s own child poverty taskforce which is chaired jointly by Phillipson and the work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall. It is due to report before the spending review this summer. But with Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, facing the prospect of having to raise taxes or cut spending as a result of deteriorating public finances, sources suggest there is no hope of lifting the cap in the foreseeable future.
One Labour source said: “There is a need to prepare the ground a bit and make clear that in the current financial position we are in, we cannot realistically do it. What we can do is talk about what else we are doing to limit child poverty.”. Sign up to Observed.
Analysis and opinion on the week's news and culture brought to you by the best Observer writers. after newsletter promotion. Last week The Observer reported that some headteachers of primary schools in England were declining to take part in the pilot schemes for breakfast clubs because they feared they would lose money by doing so. They said the fact that the government was only providing 60p per pupil would leave them with a large deficit if they took part.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders union NAHT, said the pilot scheme was welcome but concerns about funding needed to be addressed: “We have already heard from some school leaders who are worried that funding for the scheme will fall short of the cost of delivering it.
Last July seven Labour MPs were suspended from the whip for voting in favour of scrapping the two-child limit which has been criticised by several senior figures in the party as punitive and indefensible. But while ministers have suggested they would like to see it lifted they have said this can only be done if the public finances allow. Labour’s general election manifesto last year committed to spending £315 million on breakfast clubs in 2028–29. But there are now concerns over funding, with some charities warning that the government’s apparent insistence on having clubs of at least 30 minutes before school, as opposed to “grab and go” food offers or breakfast in the classroom will prove too expensive as they will mean employing extra staff.
