The restaurant entrepreneur who drafted the previous government’s plan to bring in free school meals for all today blasted Theresa May for threatening to “destroy” the project in the Tory manifesto.
He described the plan to scrap free lunches for infants and put some of the savings into offering breakfasts instead as “utter economic incompetence”.
John Vincent, who with his Leon restaurant group co-founder Henry Dimbleby drafted the original free meals plan for the coalition government, said: “The Government says it’s not afraid of making the tough decisions. Well, it’s also clearly not afraid to make stupid decisions either.
“We didn’t create this system because we’re free food campaigners. We did it because of the economics.
"Fifty per cent of the costs of providing school meals — like employing a cook and a server — are fixed, so the more children who buy them, the less you have to charge and the better the quality. You get a virtuous circle of quality and cost reduction.”
