Breakfast clubs in primary schools ‘an investment in our young people’ – Reeves

Thousands of children will get access to free breakfast clubs from April under plans set out by Rachel Reeves as she sought to offer a more optimistic vision in her first Labour conference speech as Chancellor.

Ms Reeves confirmed up to 750 schools in England would be offered the chance to take part in the first stage of the process next year.

The Chancellor’s speech, a little over a month before her first Budget on October 30, was an attempt to strike a more optimistic tone about the UK’s economy after months of gloomy messages about the inheritance she was left by the Tories.

She said: “I will judge my time in office a success if I know that at the end of it there are working-class kids from ordinary backgrounds who lead richer lives, their horizons expanded, and able to achieve and thrive in Britain today.

“That starts by taking the first steps on delivering another manifesto commitment, our promise, led by our Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, to introduce free breakfast clubs in every primary school across England.

“Today, I can announce that that will start in hundreds of schools for primary school-aged pupils from this April ahead of the national rollout, an investment in our young people, an investment in reducing child poverty, an investment in our economy.”

The plan was backed by £7 million of funding and the Department for Education would work collaboratively with schools, businesses and charities to test the delivery of the breakfast club programme ahead of the wider national rollout.

A spokesman for the Chancellor said the pilot would cover the period between April and July in the 2025 summer term before its expansion “as soon as possible,” potentially as early as September.

He played down suggestions that Ms Reeves’ speech had been an attempt to reset the dial with a brighter tone or that there had been a danger of discouraging investment with too much pessimistic messaging about the state of the economy.

But he conceded it had been an effort to show “what the prize (is) at the end of this.”

“We had to be honest about the scale of the challenge… the speech is not a response to that, but it was answering the question what is the hard work for?” the spokesman said.

The speech follows a row over Ms Reeves’s decision to means-test winter fuel payments, stripping the handouts worth up to £300 from millions of pensioners.

Ms Reeves insisted that her plans would not amount to the return of Tory-era austerity.

“Because I know how much damage has been done in those 14 years, let me say one thing straight up: there will be no return to austerity. Conservative austerity was a destructive choice for our public services and for investment and growth too,” she said.

“Yes, we must deal with the Tory legacy and that means tough decisions but I won’t let that dim our ambition for Britain.

“So it will be a budget with real ambition, a budget to fix the foundations, a budget to deliver the change that we promised, a budget to rebuild Britain.”

The Chancellor’s speech was briefly disrupted by a heckler complaining about arms sales to Israel.

As the protester was hauled away by security, Mr Reeves said: “This is a changed Labour Party, a Labour Party that represents working people, not a party of protest.”

Campaign group Climate Resistance claimed responsibility for the protest.

Ms Reeves still faces lingering anger over her decision to limit winter fuel payments only to pensioners on pension credits or certain other benefits.

Some of Labour’s biggest union backers are behind a conference motion demanding a U-turn on the measure, which is expected to be considered on Wednesday.

“I know that not everyone in this room or in the country will agree with every decision that I make,” the Chancellor said.

“I will not duck those decisions, not for political expediency, not for personal advantage.

“Faced with that £22 billion black hole that the Conservatives left this year and with the triple lock ensuring that the state pension will rise by an estimated £1,700 over the course of this Parliament, I judged it the right decision in the circumstances that we inherited.”

The Unite and CWU unions, which have tabled motions calling for the policy to be ditched, are furious that a debate on their demands was not scheduled for Monday alongside the Chancellor’s speech.

Sharon Graham, Unite’s general secretary, told the PA news agency: “Right now it is fair to say that the Labour leaders have tried to silence the voice of pensioners, workers and communities at party conference, in this blatant manoeuvre to block debate on winter fuel cuts and the departure towards austerity mark two.”

Dave Ward, general secretary of the CWU, said he was “really disappointed” that the debate on the winter fuel allowance had been put back to Wednesday.

“It should have been heard today,” he told PA.

“We will continue to campaign for the policy to be reversed whatever the outcome of the vote.

“We don’t accept that it is good economics or the right policy for the Labour Party to be pursuing.”

Campaigners said breakfast clubs alone would not address child poverty.

Becca Lyon, head of UK child poverty at Save the Children UK, said: “If the Chancellor is serious about helping working-class kids from ordinary backgrounds lead richer lives, then they need to remove barriers like scrapping the two-child limit to Universal Credit.”

Child Poverty Action chief executive Alison Garnham said: “Breakfast clubs are a welcome start but meeting Labour’s ambition to end child poverty will need much more from this government.

“And even with a pledge of no return to the past, austerity is the reality for more and more children as they’re hit by the two-child limit. The policy must be scrapped – and soon – if the Government is to deliver on its mission to reduce child poverty.”

Shadow chancellor Jeremy Hunt said: “The last few months – and today’s speech – were a big opportunity to set out plans to grow the economy. The Chancellor once again wasted it with discredited attacks on the Opposition.

“That is not governing – and business confidence is now vanishing as a result.”