Like @UKLabour peer Lesley Griffiths, I too dreaded the summer holidays. School is an escape for so many. And like @MarcusRashford the free school meals campaign is personal to me ../.. https://news.sky.com/story/labour-peer-whos-family-relied-on-free-school-meals-says-he-can-still-smell-and-taste-the-panic-of-holidays-12116470

I qualified for free school meals as a child - and I remember the burning shame of having to queue up for meal tokens at the reception. I was more fortunate than most, because my extended family stepped in to make sure we had enough to eat, so we didn't starve ../..

But I know what an awful experience it is being poor, having parents who lived in constant fear and stress not knowing where out next meal was coming from or how to put clothes on our backs ../..

People make bad choices and decisions all the time, but let me assure you NO ONE chooses to not have enough food for their kids. Our upbringing was not a choice - and that constant stress and tension leaves lasting scars ../..

To this day, I keep extra packets of pasta and tins in my cupboard, just in case. Because you never know when someone might take it all away from you, and because seeing an empty cupboard brings it all back ../..

If you've never been through it, you can't understand it, which is why some of the vitriol directed toward MPs who won't support the #FreeSchoolMeals campaign is perhaps misplaced. However ../..

If you have grown up in a household where you see your mum crying because she doesn't know how to pay the bills, or your dad swallowing his pride and trying to borrow money off people so his kids can eat lunch that day, you understand that this isn't frivolous, it's necessary ./.

For those of us who have lived in poverty as children, and who know the damage it does and the scars it leaves, this is an essential campaign. The UK gvt is in a position to help, and it should ../..

and for the avoidance of doubt. No one chooses to be poor, no one chooses to let their children go hungry, and whether you feel justified in denying help for ideological reasons remember: those children will go hungry whether you agree with #freeschoolmeals or not /ENDS