PARENTS, teachers and experts have urged the government to introduce free school meals in primary schools in England as a new survey today reveals most families have cut back on food shopping.

The Survation poll for the National Education Union (NEU) found 52 per cent of struggling parents and carers in England are cutting back on the food shop, 59 per cent on energy and 36 per cent on out-of-school activities for kids.

Campaigners urged Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to make free school meals available to the 4.6 million children in state primary schools in England — as London, Wales and Scotland have done — in next month’s Spring Budget. 

Of the 1,500 parents surveyed, the picture was worse across England than in London — where free school meals are in place.

Since the start of this school year, only four in 10 parents in London have had to cut back on the food shop, compared with 54 per cent across England. 

One in three parents struggling with food costs reported having less food or less healthy food in their children’s lunchboxes.

NEU general secretary Daniel Kebede said: “It is simply tone deaf for this government to claim that the cost-of-living crisis is easing when so many parents of all incomes are cutting back on food.” 

He said that children in London are “more engaged, are thriving in school, and it has taken welcome pressure off parents who are trying to make ends meet.” 

The poll found that four in 10 of children know someone at school who sometimes does not have enough food to eat, with the cost-of-living crisis causing parents to cut back on a series of important nutritional items from the family food shop with knock-on effects on children’s diet.  

Teacher Ann-Marie Ferrigan in Liverpool, whose pupils wrote to the PM on this issue last year, said: “The last few years I’ve seen an incredibly worrying rise in difficulty affording food, the worst I’ve seen in my career as a teacher.”

Dr Angus Holford, principal investigator for the University of Essex’s universal free school meals research project, said introducing free school meals for all would “translate into long-term health and economic benefits for society.”

Royal College of Paediatrics & Child Health president Dr Camilla Kingdon said: “As doctors, we call on the government to urgently review its position.”