Mansfield MP Ben Bradley in Twitter spat with Marcus Rashford over free school meals

Mansfield’s MP Ben Bradley has engaged in a row with footballer Marcus Rashford over free school meals.

The Manchester United footballer launched a campaign to end child poverty in the UK earlier this year earning him an MBE.

The striker hit headlines after forcing Boris Johnson into a U-turn over extending free school meals into the summer holidays.

He has since joined up with the UK’s major supermarkets as part of the ‘National Food Strategy’.

It would see a major expansion of free school meals, school holiday support and the Healthy Start voucher scheme in a bid to ensure no child goes hungry.

Posting on Twitter on Wednesday morning (October 21) Mr Rashford said he would be “paying close attention to the Commons today and to those who are willing to turn a blind eye to the needs of our most vulnerable children” as pressure mounts for the Government to back the campaign.

He went on to post a series of tweets regarding the impact of Covid-19 on families’ income and increasing rates of unemployment.

“Why keep punishing our most disadvantaged? Give our children a chance. All eyes on the Commons,” he added.

It caught the attention of Conservative MP for Mansfield, Ben Bradley, who responded directly to Mr Rashford on the issues in extending free school meals outside of term time.

Mansfield MP Ben Bradley

He tweeted: “[Government] has lots of responsibilities: supporting the vulnerable, helping people to help themselves, balancing the books.

“Not as simple as you to make out Marcus. Extending [free school meals] to [school holidays] passes responsibility for feeding kids away from parents, to the State.

“It increases dependency.”

The government has so far refused to extend provision in England over the half-term and Christmas breaks.

Labour will use a Commons vote to call for an extension on the scheme until Easter 2021.

Want us to send you a daily round-up of our biggest stories, and breaking news alerts, direct to your email inbox?

Sign up to our newsletter here.

In his reply, Mr Rashford posted: “Ben, the economy already pays a high price for child hunger. If children were fed properly you would increase educational attainment and boost life chances.

“Kelloggs UK calculated we would spend at least £5.2M a year on lost teaching hours as teachers are caring for hungry kids

“And for a more humane response, since March, 32% of families have suffered a drop in income. Nearly 1 million have fallen off the payroll.

“This is not dependency, this a cry for help. There are no jobs!! 250% increase in food poverty and rising. Nobody said this was simple…”

But Mr Bradley came back with a raft of measures the Tory Government had done to support low income households, describing the extension of free school meals as a “sticking plaster”.

“This is why we expanded [free school meals], introduced breakfast clubs, increased school budgets and made the welfare system more generous [including] increasing [Universal Credit] during Covid,” he tweeted.

“We’re doing a lot to help the most vulnerable children, but ever- extending freebies are a sticking plaster not a solution.”