• Lib Dems announce plans for free school meals for all primary school children
• NHS Confederation survey: Conservatives have run our health service into the ground
• Premier League season tickets spiral as Lib Dems call for free-to-air football
• Towns funding: Conservatives aren’t fooling anyone
• Rennie responds to M9 crash after “unforgiveable” wait for findings
• Cole-Hamilton commits to keeping triple lock on pensions

Lib Dems announce plans for free school meals for all primary school children

• The Liberal Democrats have announced their ambition to extend free school meals to all primary school children, beginning with all children in poverty.

• The party will fund their manifesto policy by introducing a share buyback tax, inspired by a similar tax introduced by Joe Biden in the US.

• Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey slams Conservative government for “letting children go hungry in the worst cost of living crisis in a generation”.

The Liberal Democrats have launched their ambition to extend free school meals to all primary school children, funded by a new share buyback tax.

The party’s plan includes an immediate extension of free school meals to all 900,000 children living in poverty who currently miss out. The second phase would see all primary school children receiving free school meals as the public finances stabilise.

Analysis by PWC found that every £1 spent on free school meals for the poorest children generates £1.38 in health and earnings benefits, including improvements to children’s health, education and future working life opportunities.

The new policy will make the Liberal Democrats the most ambitious party on free school meals. The government currently only provides meals for all children in reception, year 1 and year 2. In year 3 and above, the government has set stringent conditions on family income for children receiving free school meals.

The manifesto pledge would be funded by a 4% levy on the share buybacks of FTSE 100 listed corporations, similar to the excise tax on buybacks implemented by President Biden in the US, which could raise around £1.4bn a year.

Share buybacks occur when companies use profits to inflate their own share price, a practice which critics have warned can come at the expense of productive investment in the economy.

The sectors using share buybacks the most are oil and gas giants, banks and large corporations that own a number of food and consumer goods brands. This suggests the practice is being driven by companies profiting from soaring prices during the cost of living crisis.

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

Across the country, I hear heartbreaking stories of children going to school with empty packed lunch boxes as parents struggle to cover even the basic costs.

Conservative MPs should hang their heads in shame at a legacy of children going hungry in the worst cost of living crisis in a generation.

Children cannot be expected to learn on empty stomachs with no guarantee of a hot meal when they get home.

It is time for change. Every vote for the Liberal Democrats is a vote for a local champion who will fight for the wellbeing of children and their futures.

I am proud the Liberal Democrats have the most ambitious plan for free school meals of any party, which would save parents money and transform the future for millions of children.

Extending Free School Meals to an additional 900,000 children in poverty would cost approximately £500m a year. A 4% share buyback tax would raise around £1.4bn a year.

NHS Confederation survey: Conservatives have run our health service into the ground

Responding to the NHS Confederation survey which shows that NHS leaders are facing “drastic measures” to make ends meet, Liberal Democrat Health and Social Care spokesperson Daisy Cooper said:

The Conservatives have run our NHS into the ground, and as a result patient safety is being pushed into the danger zone.

The public will be shocked to their core that the Conservatives have left local health services facing this outrageous position.

For far too long, first as Chancellor and now as Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak has let hospitals crumble and trusts cut vital staff just to balance the books.

Liberal Democrats would train, recruit and retain the doctors, nurses and other staff we need and fix our crumbling hospitals.

Premier League season tickets spiral as Lib Dems call for free-to-air football

• Liberal Democrat manifesto to include free-to-air Premier League games

• Ed Davey calls for a “free-to-air revolution” including selection of Premier League games back on either BBC or ITV

• Subscriptions for the three channels showing Premier League matches tops £870 as the average season ticket price rises by another £33 a year to £585

The Liberal Democrats have announced their manifesto will call for a “free-to-air revolution” with Premier League games being aired on channels including BBC and ITV.

The policy would see 10 Premier League games a season put on free-to-air TV, in response to rising ticket prices and soaring subscription costs.

New research by the party has revealed the average price of a season ticket for Premier League Clubs will rise by £33 next season.

The worst offender for rising season ticket prices was Nottingham Forest which saw prices rise by 15%. The cheapest season ticket for Arsenal now tops £1,000.

Further analysis by the Liberal Democrats reveals football fans are left to fork out £870 a year in subscriptions to Sky Sports, TNT Sports and Amazon Prime Video if they want to see Premier League games.

The Liberal Democrats manifesto would put Premier League games back on free-to-air channels, as well as 10 games from the Scottish Championship and 20 games from the English Football League, such as the Championship.

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

The Conservative government has completely failed football fans, from breaking their promise to create a football regulator, to allowing greedy broadcasters to hide Premier League football away from millions.

We need to tear down the paywall and give Premier League football back to the country. It is a scandal that the country is locked out of watching the best teams.

The next generation of fans and players are unable to watch the likes of Foden, Saka and Palmer. That is a tragedy for the sport.

It is time someone got tough on money grabbing broadcasters and Premier League clubs. Fans can no longer be priced out of watching live football.

It is time for a free-to-air revolution. We need a change of government that is willing to stand up to these broadcasters, starting with putting games back on free-to-air.

Towns funding: Conservatives aren’t fooling anyone

Responding to the Conservative Party’s towns announcement, Liberal Democrat Levelling-up, Housing and Communities Spokesperson Helen Morgan said:

This isn’t fooling anyone after the Conservatives’ broken promises on ‘levelling up’ since 2019 have completely failed to deliver.

Their ‘levelling up’ agenda over the last few years has pitted councils against each other and left them begging for scraps, and rural areas often failed to benefit at all. We need to see proper funding for local councils alongside more powers for them to make investments they believe in.

Liberal Democrats will put our communities and high streets first by reforming business rates to encourage new businesses to invest in our high streets. We would invest in our rural communities properly too, rather than continuing to leave them behind like the Conservatives.

Rennie responds to M9 crash after “unforgiveable” wait for findings

Responding to the report into the deaths of Lamara Bell and John Yuill on the M9 in 2015, Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP Willie Rennie, who was warning about the dangers posed by Police Scotland in the run-up to the failure to respond, said:

In the months before the tragic deaths of Lamara Bell and John Yuill I repeatedly warned Nicola Sturgeon about the problems at the call centres but the SNP Government did nothing to stop the cavalier closures.

It was SNP ministers who drove through the rushed centralisation of the police and ignored the concerns of those on the ground. Today, SNP ministers need to take responsibility for their part in this and admit their terrible political decisions had tragic consequences.

The agonising nine year wait to find out precisely what happened is unforgiveable. The broken FAI system is adding to the families’ torment. I’m sick of seeing families become trapped in this prolonged process and the government needs to make it stop by accepting the need to completely overhaul FAIs.

This will be a tough day for the families of Lamara Bell and John Yuill.

Cole-Hamilton commits to keeping triple lock on pensions

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has today committed to keeping the pensions triple lock during a visit to a community club for older people in Edinburgh.

Mr Cole-Hamilton made the announcement as he visited the CAMEO (Come And Meet Every One) Club, which brings together elderly and semi-housebound people at St Columba’s Church in Edinburgh’s Blackhall.

The transformative policy, introduced by the Liberal Democrats in 2010, ensures that pensions rise in line with inflation, average wages, or 2.5%, whichever is higher, and provides pensioners with much-needed income security.

During his visit to the club, Cole-Hamilton noted the importance of the triple lock in helping older people deal with the cost of living crisis.

The triple lock has lifted 300,000 pensioners out of absolute poverty since the Liberal Democrats introduced it and remains crucial to the one-and-a-half million pensioners across the UK still living in absolute poverty.

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said:

The cost of living crisis, created by government failure in Edinburgh and London, has been brutal on households and our pensioners have been among the hardest hit.

They should not have to pay for government mismanagement and the catastrophic harm the SNP and Tories have done to the economy.

Liberal Democrats are proud to be the party of the triple lock, which has lifted more than 300,000 pensioners out of absolute poverty since we introduced it and we will continue to be strong champions for it and for our older people.

We are clear, the triple lock stays and Scottish Liberal Democrats are here to ensure it.