Labour's breakfast clubs feel like a poorly disguised bribe

After nine months, the government finally claims to have started to deliver practical help to families.

- JOHN RENTOUL

On Monday morning, 750 primary schools across England opened their doors half an hour early to the children of parents who want to take advantage of breakfast clubs.

Breakfast clubs feel like the sort of retail politics that actually matters to people, akin to the free school lunches for undersevens introduced by Nick Clegg in the coalition government in 2014, and the recent extensions of taxpayer-funded childcare. Indeed, one of the features of breakfast clubs is that they provide another half-hour-a-day of childcare.

The breakfast club pilot scheme is a remarkably modest first step. Local councils complain that the plan, being introduced in just one in 20 primary schools in England, is underfunded. But it seems sensible to work gradually towards Labour’s manifesto promise of a breakfast club in every primary school.