Free school meals row like something from Oliver Twist, says the Children’s Commissioner

The Children’s Commissioner for England has likened the Government’s refusal to extend free school meals for disadvantaged children over the holidays to something from the pages of Oliver Twist.

Asked about the campaign being waged to change government policy, Anne Longfield told Sophy Ridge on Sunday: “To have a debate about whether we should make sure that hungry and vulnerable children have enough to eat is something that is strikingly similar to something we’d expect to see in chapters of Oliver Twist – a novel published in the 19th century.”

Charles Dickens‘ classic novel, about an orphan left to the mercy of the workhouse who horrifies its staff by asking for more to eat, caused a scandal when it was published in the 19th century with its depiction of the brutal reality that awaited abandoned children.

The government’s refusal to yield on the issue has seen it criticised by the opposition, some of its own MPs, thousands of children’s doctors, and Manchester United and England footballer Marcus Rashford, who has become the public face of the campaign to change the policy.