Residents protest outside Mansfield MP's constituency office over free school meals comments

It comes after Conservative MPs overwhelming voted against Labour’s motion to continue free £15 school meal vouchers throughout the school holidays until Easter next year, back in October.

Ben Bradley, who voted against extending the scheme for deprived children, defended the Government’s position and wrote a since-deleted post linking free school meals to “brothels” and “crack dens” in Mansfield.

He wrote in a now-deleted tweet: “At one school in Mansfield 75% of kids have a social worker, 25% of parents are illiterate.

"Their estate is the centre of the area’s crime.

“One kid lives in a crack den, another in a brothel.

"These are the kids that most need our help, extending FSM doesn’t reach these kids.”

The Mansfield MP who has long opposed the free school meal vouchers said his comments had been taken out of context.

Activist groups, Unite, National Union of Mineworkers and Ben Bradley Doesn’t Speak for Us organised the protest outside his office in Church Street on Saturday, October 31.

The protesters stuck paper plates with messages such as ‘lunch is not a luxury’, ‘end holiday hunger’ and ‘Ben Bradley has no pity for hungry children’ to the Mansfield representative’s windows.

In a joint statement, the activists said Ben Bradley’s “hurtful, cruel and insulting comments made about children receiving free school meals in the holidays”.

The Mansfield MP claimed £58,985.65 in expenses, including travel and staffing costs, from June 1, 2019 to May 31 of this year.

North Nottinghamshire Unite Community branch and Ben Bradley Doesn’t Speak for Us claimed Mr Bradley’s expenses during this period would provide free school meals for 26 children for the next 12 months.

The plates stuck to the Mansfield MP’s office windows were later posted to his office with a letter from the group asking him to be more thoughtful about the messages he posts on social media and the impact they may have on his constituents.

In a statement, protesters said: “The Group would like Ben Bradley’s Tory Government to reverse its cruel decision and continue to provide free school meals in the holidays, for children who normally received these in term time.”

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