Free school meals row: MP Philip Davies brands 16-year-old ‘intolerant’ for supporting half term extension

Philip Davies says pupil is ‘virtue signalling’ but later apologises

An MP who once blocked a bill requiring schools to give children first-aid training called a 16-year-old constituent “intolerant” in a row over free school holiday meals for children.

The government in England has rejected calls to extend a voucher scheme for children to receive free school meals over the half-term and winter holidays.

Philip Davies, MP for Shipley, Yorkshire, accused the A-Level pupil of “virtue signalling” when she objected to his vote against the extension.

He later told The Independent he did not know she was only 16 when he replied to her email and that he had apologised to her if he upset her.

MPs this week rejected by 322 votes to 261 a Labour motion to extend free school meals during holidays until Easter.

Jim Innes said his daughter, Lily, was “absolutely raging” after receiving the MP’s reply.

She had written to him: "How dare you vote to let children starve over the holidays? Almost 20,000 children in Bradford require free school meals; the city in which you live, the place with constituents you are meant to be working for and today you voted so they'd go hungry over the holidays."

She went on to say: "I seriously hope you reconsider your position, but I'm well aware of your abhorrent views and lack of compassion for the poorest and most vulnerable in our country and community so I'm not too optimistic."

He replied: "Thank you for your email, even though you show how intolerant you are to anyone who holds a different opinion to you.

"I appreciate that virtue signalling is in vogue, but I am afraid that I take the rather old-fashioned view that parents should be primarily responsible for feeding their children rather than the state.

"That never used to be a contentious view - even when Labour were in government and they refused to do this - and I am very sad that it has become so.

"I am afraid that I cannot support such a state power grab from the principle of parental responsibility. If we are not even going to ask parents to be responsible for feeding their children then I wonder what we would ask them to be responsible for.”

On social media, there was overwhelming support for Lily, with one user saying the response was “condescending and cloth-eared”.

Mr Innes told Mr Davies his daughter, who has two part-time jobs, was raging, to which the MP said he was delighted Lily had a passion for politics, adding: “However, I hope she will develop a respect for other opinions.”

Mr Davies told The Independent: "Obviously I had no idea she was 16 as she never disclosed that at any point.

"He father is a prominent member of the Shipley Labour Party. 

“I emailed her subsequently to apologise if I upset her to which she assured me I hadn’t.”

But Mr Innes said he was no longer a member of the Labour Party.

The MPs’ vote against free school meals came despite the high-profile campaign by England and Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford.