London Tories Call For "Conversation" On Ending Sadiq Khan's Free School Meal Scheme

The Mayor of London introduced the capital's free school meal programme in 2023 (Jordan Pettitt/PA Images/Alamy)

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Senior London Conservatives have called for a “conversation” about scrapping Sadiq Khan’s free school meal programme if the party wins the mayoral election in 2028.

Under the mayor’s programme, launched in 2023, all state primary school children in London receive free school meals on a universal basis. In the rest of England, meals are provided to every child up to the end of Year Two, after which point they become means-tested.

Speaking at a Tory conference fringe event in Birmingham, Emma Best, deputy leader of City Hall Conservatives, said the party needs to have “a big conversation” about the scheme’s future because of its cost.

“I don’t think it’s a commitment that we need to say we’re stopping it right now, but I don’t think the public understand what is happening,” she said.

“Half a billion pounds is being spent on free school meals. Nothing’s free – those are taxpayer-funded meals…

“I’ve got three kids. They’re all getting free school meals. It’s a single parent on a council estate somewhere who is struggling every day, who is paying for my kids to have free meals.”

The mayor allocated £130m to the scheme in its first year, rising to £140m in 2024/25 and £148m in 2025/26. After the government expanded eligibility for free school meals nationally, a further £99m was allocated to the scheme for 2026/27. He has promised to keep the scheme in place for as long as he is mayor.

“This year, the Met [Police] is £200m short in their budget,” said Best. “That is a conversation we need to have. That is a point Londoners have to understand, first and foremost. Once Londoners understand the trade-offs, we can talk about what we’ll do about it.”

Shadow minister and London MP Gareth Bacon told PoliticsHome he agreed with Best, particularly given that schools policy is not part of the mayor’s statutory remit.

“The truth is that education is not part of the mayor’s devolved powers. The mayor chose to try to invade that territory a year before the last mayoral election, and frankly it looked like an electoral gambit,” he said.

“At a time when he can’t police the streets properly, that seems like the wrong priority to me… If everything else was going very smoothly, that would be fine. It isn’t.

He continued: “He’s nearly doubled the council tax precept in the ten years that he has been mayor. The police haven’t got enough money to police the streets effectively, and he’s spending taxpayers’ money on things that aren’t any of his business. That’s not right.”

The next Conservative mayor, he added, should “make it clear to people, these are the choices – are you happy with this? Are you happy that the policing budget is lower than it should be at the same time that the mayor is spending taxpayers’ money on things that are not within his power?

The last Conservative mayoral candidate, Susan Hall, promised to keep the free school meal programme in place “for as long as the cost of living situation requires it”, though she later questioned whether the scheme should be “targeted” at poorer families – prompting criticism from Khan.

“The mayor wanted that kind of argument, that’s why he did it [introduced the policy] before the election,” said Bacon. “Had there been a crying need for it, I’m sure he would have done it ten years ago.

“He thought he was going to be under some pressure at the election, so I think he was reaching for things he thought might be popular, that he could do very quickly, and he came up with that.”

While Khan has not yet confirmed whether he will run for a fourth term in 2028, four Conservative members are running to be nominated as their party’s mayoral candidate.

The most well-known among them, the former home and foreign secretary James Cleverly, has avoided making detailed policy commitments, and his team declined to comment on whether he would scrap the free school meals scheme when approached by PoliticsHome.

One of his rivals, Westminster councillor Festus Akinbusoye, similarly declined to comment.

But London Assembly member Andrew Boff, who is on his seventh attempt since 2000 at securing the London mayoral candidacy, told PoliticsHome he would look at whether the scheme should be more limited.

“Free school meals should absolutely be there for children who need them. But Khan chose to make the scheme universal, including for families perfectly able to pay,” he said.

“With more than £500m allocated or approved over four years, we have to ask whether that is the best use of scarce mayoral resources. I would protect support for families who need it, while reviewing whether better-off households should continue to be subsidised.”

Alex Challoner, a party activist also seeking the nomination, went further by saying he would remove the scheme in its entirety.

“Sadiq Khan has spent almost half a billion pounds playing education secretary while the basics of running London go undone. Every pound of that is a pound not spent on the problems only City Hall can fix,” he said.

“The best way to put money in Londoners' pockets is a good job with rising pay. As mayor, I will make London the easiest city in the world to invest in, so businesses build here, grow here and hire here.

“Parents deserve a mayor focused on the economy their children will work in, not one chasing headlines.”

A source close to Khan told PoliticsHome: "It's staggering that the Tories want to take away free school meals from London's children.

"No child should go hungry at school. Almost 130m meals have been delivered since the programme began in 2023, saving families up to £1,500 per child over the last three years. Free school meals are a vital financial lifeline for many families.

"Delivering free school meals has not only given children nutrition. It has supported families struggling with the cost of living, improved the health and wellbeing of children, and positively impacted school communities."