Sadiq Khan quizzed on future of free school meals in London and across England IMG_2661

Evening Standard

Sadiq Khan quizzed on future of free school meals in London and across England.

Transcript

00:00Delivering free school meals has proved hugely popular that report makes that

00:03really clear. The cost of the policy amounted to about 135 million last year

00:09you've increased the funding to 140 this year. How are you going to keep paying

00:13for this policy? Are you going to be crossing your fingers every year for

00:16higher than expected business rates? Well I'm really excited at the

00:19publication of today's independent evaluation which confirms the huge

00:23success Universal Free School Meals has been. If you do a cost-benefit analysis

00:27in relation to the money it costs to provide the free school meals and see the

00:31benefits. Just the first report shows it's remarkable in relation to helping

00:35and significantly improving the finances of a family, in relation to the

00:40relationships within the school community, in relation to the well-being

00:44health of children, in relation to the productivity and concentration of those

00:49children. So I think it's good value for money in relation to 140 million pounds.

00:54The promise I made to Londoners is as long as I'm mayor I'm going to carry on

00:58providing free school meals. Londoners had a choice on May 2nd because the

01:01Conservatives said had they been elected they'd have stopped this because they've

01:04got other priorities. I'm quite clear this is a priority for me.

01:07Okay but when we spoke in January, this was before you'd committed to keeping

01:13the policy permanent, you said what I can't do is commit to things in

01:17perpetuity when I've not got a recurring source of income, that being the key

01:21phrase. So I'm afraid the bad news is I can't say to Londoners that I'll be

01:25providing universal free school meals in perpetuity. Where is that recurring

01:29source of income now? Well we have at the moment single-year deals from the

01:33government and so I publish my budget every year. In due course I'll be

01:36publishing my budget that will set out how we're going to fund free school meals

01:40going forward next year and every year as long as there are single-year deals

01:44from the government I'll be publishing every year my budget. But the good news

01:49is the government's going to be publishing a comprehensive spending

01:53review come spring. Our ask of the government is a multi-year deal from the

01:58government. If we get that from the government, a multi-year deal, I'll be

02:01able to give a multi-year settlement. That will provide the certainty to keep

02:04to make the policy in place for the rest of your mayoralty? Well the

02:08certainty that Londoners should have is that I'm the mayor and so I've said that

02:11if I win the election on May the 2nd I'll make this a policy permanent as

02:14long as I'm mayor. Londoners know from my track record when I make promises I

02:20keep them. Earlier this year you also said, frankly speaking, it shouldn't be us

02:25having to pay for universal free school meals, it should be the government. Is that still

02:28your position? Well I'm really really pleased on July the 4th we had a

02:31change in the government which means we will from April see primary schools in

02:36London benefiting from the free breakfast which are really important but

02:40also we've seen since July the 4th the disclosure from the Treasury confirmed

02:44by the OBR this is 22 billion pounds black hole which needs to be filled some

02:48way. I fully appreciate and understand why the government can't you know

02:52provide funding for universal free school meals. I'm hoping in the medium

02:55to long term once this government fixes the mess left by the previous government

03:00we'll have a proper conversation about how we can have this going forward.

03:03That's the number one recommendation in the report, it's top of the list. It

03:07says the government should commit to phased rollout of universal free school

03:11meals across the country. You say you want a conversation on that, is it not a

03:15recommendation you completely support, you want to see what in place by the

03:19end of the term? I'm a record of saying it's good policy, that's why it's in my manifesto and

03:23that's why I'm here being delighted. But you endorsed the recommendation, you think the

03:27government should be looking at this phased rollout of national free school

03:30meals? I fully understand the pressures the government's under, I was with Rachel Reeves

03:33last week and when you hear some of the stories in relation to what this

03:37government has inherited it's just alarming. I know though what it's like

03:41inheriting a mess. I inherited a mess where I had a bridge that hadn't been started

03:45costing 50 million pounds. I remember I had water cannons I couldn't use, sitting in

03:48storage, so I understand what it's like inheriting a mess. I sympathise fully

03:52with the challenges that Rachel Reeves and her team has. The great news is the

03:58promise the Labour Party made in the manifesto of free breakfast is going to

04:02happen ahead of schedule. London children will see the benefits in April, a free

04:06breakfast and a free lunch, which is a quite remarkable bearing in mind just two

04:11years ago there was neither of those things. You support the recommendation

04:15but it can't be done? I don't speak for the government, what I know from the

04:19government is, conversations I've had with them, it's a mess in relation to their

04:22inheritance. They're trying really hard to clean up that mess. 22 billion pounds is

04:26not an insignificant amount of money. 22 billion pounds a year deficit is what

04:30they've inherited.

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