Labour MP Lisa Nandy slams Tories for 'debating whether children should starve' after major U-turn

This week the Tories made a major U-turn and decided to provide free school meal vouchers to children over the summer holidays.

The move came after a highly publicised campaign by Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford, who penned an open letter describing his own upbringing in poverty.

The Labour Party and charity Scope also campaigned for the U-turn, though it was undoubtedly the momentum of Rashford’s campaign that forced the change.

Now shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy has delivered an impassioned monologue on the BBC’s Question Time about how we simply can’t return to the “new normal” of children going without food.

She said:

It shouldn’t take a brave young footballer to shame the government into action. How could we possibly, only 48 hours ago, still be debating whether we were going to allow some children to go starving over the school holidays?

On the day that the government decided to U-turn the prime minister was at the despatch box denying the existence of 600,000 children who have been pushed into poverty.

This is as a result of an approach to government that has systematically stripped support away from children.

On social media, Nandy was praised for bringing the plight of children to the centre