I wonder when Brendan Clarke-Smith wrote the speech that helped to ensure children will go hungry during their school holidays.
Perhaps the Tory MP for Bassetlaw scribbled his notes between the courses of a good lunch in the subsidised Members’ Dining Room.
Maybe the line about “nationalising children” came to him over coffee – perking up his oh-so-righteous rant about parental responsibility.
But watching Mr Clarke-Smith standing in the House of Commons urging his party to deny 1.4 million vulnerable kids a free meal made me want to throw up my own dinner.
And I wasn’t alone in finding their hypocrisy nauseating and shameful.
When footballer Marcus Rashford, 22, forced the Government to extend the free school meal scheme over the summer holidays, Boris and Co wore their compassion like school prefect badges.
Head boy Boris even nominated the England and Man United star for an MBE.
But, when asked to guarantee their meals up until Easter as families struggle through the second wave, the milk of Tory kindness quickly turned sour.
One MP balked at “extending freebies”.
Another sneered that schoolboy Rashford’s own reliance on free school meals was the fault of a Labour government.
But it was Brendan Clarke-Smith who really took the biscuit.
“Where is the slick PR campaign encouraging absent parents to take some responsibility for their children?” he asked.
“I do not believe in nationalising children.”
Because feeding our most vulnerable youngsters is as idealistically repugnant to Mr Clarke-Smith as taking the railways back into public ownership. Rumbling stomachs, rumbling trains – someone else’s responsibility.
Well, Marcus Rashford, who helped at a food bank with his mum Melanie this week, thinks otherwise.
And thanks to his leadership thousands of people ARE willing to take ownership of this urgent issue.
Since the Commons’ snub, scores of organisations have taken to social media offering to supply free meals to kids during the half-term holiday.
And as Rashford shares their #EndChildFoodPoverty tweets, the effort is gathering pace.
He posted: “Blown away by news of local businesses stepping up to fill the voucher scheme deficit during the October half term. Selflessness, kindness, togetherness, this is the England I know.”
A nation that does believe in prioritising hungry children.
