Hartlepool MP Jonathan Brash says Reform UK's first big test in running Hartlepool Borough Council has arrived
The first big test of Reform running Hartlepool Borough Council has arrived and their answer tells you everything you need to know about their priorities.
When given the opportunity to stand up for working families, they have chosen instead to hit them with a 23% increase in the cost of school dinners.
From September, the price of a school meal will rise from £2.79 to £3.43.
For a child having a school meal every day, that is around £122 extra a year.
For a family with two children, it is almost £250 more coming out of the household budget.
At a time when families are still counting every penny, Reform has chosen to send another bill through the door.
And let’s be absolutely clear: They have no excuse.
This is not a council being starved of resources. This is not a council with no options.
Under the Labour Government’s funding settlement, Hartlepool Council’s core spending power has increased by 21%, around £40 million more over three years.
So families across Hartlepool are entitled to ask a simple question: If Reform has received tens of millions of pounds more, why is it parents who are being asked to pay the price?
For all their promises, when faced with their first difficult decision they have reverted to type, the old Thatcherite instinct that when the books need balancing, it is ordinary working people who should carry the burden.
That is not the politics Hartlepool deserves.
But, while Reform increases the cost of school meals, the Labour Government is expanding support for families.
From September, thousands more children will become eligible for free school meals as Labour removes the unfair earnings barrier that excluded many working families.
In Hartlepool, around 17,000 families are set to benefit from the expansion of free school meals.
And we are delivering free breakfast clubs in our primary schools, helping children start the day ready to learn while supporting parents.
One side is investing in children. The other is sending parents another bill.
Reform wanted the responsibility of running Hartlepool Council. They cannot now blame anyone else for the choices they make.
Labour believe children’s opportunities should come first, not political vanity projects, not protecting the powerful and certainly not making parents pay more to put food on the table.