Boris Johnson should have a word with the Conservative-controlled local council in his west London constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip about Marcus Rashford’s school meals campaign.
“Hillingdon Council will be offering free school meals to eligible children during the half term holiday,” the council announced this weekend. “Full details of the scheme and how to claim will be made available on Monday.”
Hillingdon is not the only Tory borough to ignore the prime minister’s rejection of the Manchester United and England star’s campaign to extend free school meals to the half-term holiday period.
The Tory-controlled council in the PM’s constituency is going to be offering free school meals during half term
Others include true-blue Kensington and Chelsea, the richest borough in the UK, with the greatest concentration of billionaires on the planet and residents including Sir Elton John and the Beckhams.
But it’s not just Tory councils that are defying the prime minister as public support for the Rashford campaign appears to grow and the government digs itself deeper into a hole with its intransigence.
Conservative MPs, many of whom are facing an angry backlash in their constituencies after voting against Labour’s Commons motion to extend free school meals to half term, are on the turn too.
One such sinner who appears to be repenting is Tobias Ellwood, the former minister who chairs the defence select committee, who told Sky News free school meals appear to be popular and so the government “shouldn’t be churlish” and “do what works”.
With Labour certain to keep up the pressure on the government on free school meals after parliament’s half term recess, a Tory rebellion in the event of another Commons vote is likely to be much bigger than the five MPs who voted with Labour on Wednesday.
Some Tory MPs, however, take a different view, regarding the Rashford campaign and Labour’s backing for it as a crude, party political attempt to denigrate and smear the prime minister and the government.
Some of the Conservative MPs who take that view have made crass and insensitive comments. None more so than Ben Bradley, motormouth MP for Mansfield, who described free school meals as “£20 cash direct to a crack den and a brothel”.
Mr Bradley is the sensitive soul who tweeted during the 2011 London riots: “The water cannons are coming. I’ll be in front of the news tonight watching police play ‘Splat the Chav’.”
Another charmer is Selaine Saxby, MP for the North Devon seat once represented by Jeremy Thorpe, who said she hoped local businesses able to give away food for free “will not be seeking any further government support”.
Rashford, meanwhile, who rather sweetly took his mum with him on a visit to a food bank depot, has wisely stayed above the political point-scoring and remains courteous in his comments and correspondence with MPs.
But it has emerged that the England footballer wrote a very personal letter to the PM on 1 September, on the same day he wrote a public letter to all MPs, but has still not received a response from Downing Street nearly eight weeks later.
His spokesperson said the letter was “very respectful, informing of intent and the objective of his Child Food Poverty Task Force and requesting collaboration with the government”.
Privately, many Tory MPs believe the government’s response to this issue is tin-eared and shockingly bad politics.
They believe a U-turn is inevitable and that the longer the government delays, the more damage to the Conservative Party – particularly in those “red wall” seats the Tories won in the north of England in the December 2019 general election – will be inflicted.
And self-inflicted damage, at that.
Speaking on Sky News, the always-wise former 10 Downing Street press spokesman Jonathan Haslam recommended to the prime minister that he attempt to avoid further political damage by talking to his MPs.
He might have added that Mr Johnson should speak to his local Tory council in west London, too.