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A CONSERVATIVE MP in the UK has been criticised for suggesting “chaotic parents” can be to blame for sending their children to school hungry so they are unable to concentrate.
John Penrose, a former minister who is married to NHS Test and Trace chief Diana Harding, made the remark in a letter to a constituent as he defended voting against extending free school meals.
Penrose argued that the root causes of poverty should be focused on as the Government faces public anger after refusing to extend the meals into half-term and beyond.
He criticised “sticking plaster” solutions that “increase dependency” on state support, as Manchester United and England footballer Marcus Rashford leads a campaign against child hunger.
The backbencher added: “Practical measures which make a genuine difference to the causes of poverty include things like the Pupil Premium, which gives schools extra funding for disadvantaged pupils; breakfast clubs, which help children with chaotic parents who send them to school without breakfast so they can’t concentrate properly…”
Shadow education secretary Kate Green criticised Penrose’s remarks and said it is not too late to “do the right thing” and back free school meals over the Christmas holiday.
“It is completely unacceptable for a Conservative MP to blame parents for the challenges created by his own Government’s chronic incompetence,” the Labour MP said.
“Children are at risk of going hungry because of a decade of stagnant wages and cuts to social security. Not only have the Conservatives voted against helping these children, they are now blaming their parents.”
The letter, which was posted to Twitter by a man saying he is a constituent of the Weston-super-Mare MP, comes after a separate controversial comment from a Tory colleague.
Mansfield MP Ben Bradley, who later argued his remark was “totally taken out of context”, replied to a tweet that described the free school meals programme as “£20 cash direct to a crack den and a brothel” by saying: “That’s what FSM vouchers in the summer effectively did…”
The Mirror, which first reported Penrose’s letter, quoted the UK MP as defending the contents of the letter.
“I’m afraid this says more about the small anti-Tory prejudices of a couple of local Labour activists than about what’s really in my letter, which is clearly about how breakfast clubs can be a valuable way of dealing with one of the causes of poverty, not about everybody else who uses breakfast clubs too,” he said.
Penrose’s wife, Diana Harding, has faced criticism over her handling of the UK’s Test and Trace system.
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I’m not surprised,
As somebody who previously worked for Ms Harding I’m also not surprised the test and trace system in the UK is a joke.
All Harding ever wanted to do was cut systems, staff and services to the bare bone, it didn’t matter if this meant the services given to customers were awful… That seemed to be the plan.
I would like to see these ministers spend a year working in the public mental health system attempting to “cure” chaotic parenting. Poverty is chaos. I am thankful that my family came with the generational stability and good physical and mental health to provide a different life. I have never known homelessness or being without a (moneyed) support system. Others are not so lucky and it’s not the children’s fault.
@Rathminder: the child is the responsibility of the parent and no one else , until they have failed in their moral duties . For the record , I think the government were pretty miserable in not extending this grant , least for a short term , even if it was to score some good PR
1940-1980s was a life of cash strapped families and poverty (even if some owned a farm), yet most of them sent their children to school fed n clean. You attest to this .Some “parents” of the last decade couldn’t tie their own shoe laces without government intervention, never mind looking after the basic needs of their children . The buck has to stop with the parents. As another poster rightly pointed out , the costs for a few meals is much lower than the 20-30 quid a pop for take aways at the chipper
Labour crashed their economy and increased military spending.
@SC: I’m assuming you mean Labour caused the 2008 recession? Did you miss the fact that this was a Worldwide recession?
The torys promised sunlit uplands with brexit, they lied and that lie will going to condemn thousands to poverty and loss of jobs.
Oh and the UK is a already in another recession even before brexit.
The current situation is far worse then what Labour may have done.
@SC: the conservatives have has ten years to un-crash the economy but all they seem to have done is cut benefits for poor people, increase tax breaks for rich people, and leave the EU (which probably won’t help the economy massively)
He’s fine with MPs receiving free meals though isn’t he? Hypocritical pr.1.[K
@Fr Chewy Louis: They aren’t free they are a part of their salary for the workers on the parliamentary estate. It’s the same with food here kids that go without is because of parents not the state. You can eat for peanuts if you make the effort. A toasty for 70 cent a bag of washed potatoes for a euro a joint of ham for less than a fiver, an extra large chicken for a fiver a bag of carrots for 99 cent a bunch of bananas for less than 2 euro I could go on. It’s lazy parents that want to spend €30 at the chipper rather than a tenner on ingredients that is the problem.
Chaotic children sending parent to school hungry
@Lisa Quinn: title of my autobiography
Tory mp in UK as opposed to a Tory mp in west Pakistan
By the way – the email from you regarding the payment for the next course, was the last thing I did
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