It has been a very busy week for me back home in Grimsby, working on a key project which I hope to be transformational for the town. Due to the long-term nature of these discussions, I requested permission to be absent from Parliament two months ago and was 'paired' with opposition colleagues. This prevented me from voting during my time working in Grimsby.
Although the free school meals vote was lost, I will continue to lobby to get as much support as possible for our children and young people in Grimsby. Had I been in Parliament, I would have supported the vote to continue free school meals during the pandemic.
The Government is currently supporting 1.4M children across the UK with free school meals and has provided an additional £9 billion for welfare funds, such as Universal Credit, and an additional £63M to help councils to support families in need.
