The Liberal Democrat candidate for Bath, Wera Hobhouse, has challenged her Tory rival to condemn the Conservative Party’s plan to stop free school meals being provided for infant children.
Wera Hobhouse said: “This proposal, which is in the Conservative manifesto, shows the nasty party is back, and hitting the poorest hardest.
“Theresa May is betraying working families by snatching school lunches from their children. The choices she has made in her manifesto will affect 4,522 children in B&NES and will cost their parents £480 a year per child. So much for helping the ‘just about managing.’
“MPs will need to vote in the next Parliament to undo the legislation we passed to provide infants with free meals under the Coalition.
“So I publicly challenge Ben Howlett, the Conservative candidate in Bath, to come clean: if he were elected, would he troop through the voting lobbies to take away free lunches from the children of hard-pressed families?
“Or would he have the decency and courage to stop the Conservatives from becoming the party of lunch snatchers?
“He should tell us. Judging by his record for obediently voting the way he is told by his Party bosses however bad the result, I’m not holding my breath.”
At the time of publishing, the Bath Echo has not received a response from Ben Howlett or his office.
