Furious political row erupts over UNICEF giving out meals to struggling families in Southwark

Unicef is helping to feed hungry children in the UK for the first time in its 70 year history – in Southwark.

And the scheme has become the subject of a bitter scrap between the main parties in the House of Commons.

The worldwide UN agency, responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to children, launched its appeal because of a big rise in the number of families facing food poverty. 

The coronavirus pandemic is the most urgent crisis hitting children since the Second World War, it says.

 It is giving £25,000 to the charity School Food Matters which will use the money to feed vulnerable families in Southwark during the two-week Christmas holiday.

The opposition says it shows the government is failing in its duty to UK families. Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner said: “We are one of the richest countries in the world. Our children should not have to rely on humanitarian charities that are used to operating in war zones and in response to natural disasters. ‘

“Charities and businesses across the country have done a brilliant job stepping in where the Government has failed, but it should have never come to this.”

Labour MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark Neil Coyle said: “Didn’t happen in the global financial crisis or ever before but now Unicef intervening in Southwark after a decade of Tory damage to social security and beyond.

“Instead of condemning UNICEF for helping in Southwark, the Government should examine why so many children need UNICEF help. Rees-Mogg could not be more out of touch but I hope examines his conscience in the run-up to Christmas and agrees to visit Southwark to see what his Government’s policies have done to our community.”

But Tory Commons leader Jacob Rees-Mogg said: “I think it’s a real scandal that Unicef should be playing politics in this way when it is meant to be looking after people in the poorest, the most deprived countries in the world, where people are starving, where there are famines and there are civil wars.

“And they make cheap political points of this kind, giving, I think, £25,000 to one council. It is a political stunt of the lowest order.”

Anna Kettley, director of programmes at Unicef UK called for a long-term solution to food poverty. “This is Unicef’s first ever emergency response within the UK, introduced to tackle the unprecedented impact of the coronavirus crisis and reach the families most in need,” she said.

“‘The funding will help build stronger communities as the impact of the pandemics worsen, but ultimately a longer-term solution is needed to tackle the root causes of food poverty, so no child is left to go hungry.”

The money pay for distribution of 1,800 breakfast boxes; and 6,750 breakfasts for families over the February half-term break. 

School Food Matters founder Stephanie Slater said: “The response to our summer Breakfast Boxes programme has shown us that families are really struggling and many were facing the grim reality of a two-week winter break without access to free school meals and the indignity of having to rely on food banks to feed their children.
“By providing our breakfast boxes, families know that their children will have a great start to the day with a healthy nutritious breakfast.”

 A Government spokesperson said: ‘We are committed to supporting the lowest-paid families through the pandemic and beyond. That’s why we have raised the living wage, boosted welfare support by billions of pounds and introduced the £170m Covid Winter Grant Scheme to help children and families stay warm and well-fed during the coldest months.’