The Guardian view on free school meals: MPs won’t support a more equal, sustainable future when others will | Editorial

Britain's missing voice in a key global anti-poverty debate reveals how the country is fading into irrelevance on the world stage

In late Victorian Britain, splendid isolation" was celebrated as a testament to the nation's imperial strength. Today, seclusion from global events is not an indication of power but the world's indifference to Brexit Britain's inward turn. A decade ago, the UK would have been at the forefront of anti-poverty efforts. Now it offers the world neither money nor ideas. The upshot is that China, the EU and the US are part of the School Meals Coalition, led by developing nations to push for universal access to free school meals by 2030 as a response to rising hunger. Britain is nowhere to be seen.

The coalition was at centre of debates at Monday's UN food summit in Rome. Rising global food prices have left much of the planet poorer. But the main UK parties avoid saying that the state can combat poverty. The Tory indifference to hardship in a cost of living crisis rests on spurious anti-government arguments. Sir Keir Starmer's crippling electoral caution means he won't back universal free school meals for state primary schools in England. It is political arrogance to think that Labour has a right to the support of progressive voters regardless of what the party says and does. Labour's Sadiq Khan knows what's at stake. The London mayor is offering the capital's primary-school children free school meals from this September.