The Liberal Democrats have welcomed figures showing that 1.6 million children are now eating school dinners since the party introduced its flagship free school meals policy in September.
Around 85% of children now eat a school dinner at lunchtime, up from around 46% under the last policy regime.
The deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, said: “The naysayers about this policy can eat their hats, and all the leftover sprouts.”
The initiative provides free school dinners for all children in primary schools, regardless of the wealth of their parents. The move was designed to improve the diets of children across the country by ensuring every child eats one hot, healthy meal every day.
Critics of the policy have said it has led to schools losing out on pupil premium payments, funding worth around £1,300 for every disadvantaged pupil each year. Under the old system parents used to have to register for free school meals for their child and schools would then automatically receive a pupil premium for that child.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, minister for schools David Laws defended the scheme saying that the most up-to-date figures on registration for pupil premiums were not yet available and that they were making moves to remove the bureaucracy involved in signing up for the payment.
The Daily Mail reported that one in five schoolchildren is rejecting the free school meals in favour of a packed lunch because the meals are thought to be low quality.
On his weekly phone-in show on LBC, Clegg retorted: “The problem with the grumpy folk at the Daily Mail is that they imagine that every packed lunch is full of hummus and fresh succulent fruit and muesli … a lot of packed lunches aren’t actually as good in terms of nutritional value as a healthy meal shared with other children at lunchtime.”
