Free breakfast clubs should be an easy, popular win for the UK’s increasingly embattled Labour government.
But, as with most political success stories, it’s all about how you sell it.
At the start of October, the Department of Education shared a social media video asking parents what they would do with an extra 30 minutes a day.
Presumably the prompt was supposed to get parents talking about how helpful the 30-minute free breakfasts are with work-life balance and cost of living pressures.
Something like this, from a more recent video from the DoE.
Education Secretary, @bphillipsonMP, saw how free breakfast clubs are helping families get the best start to the day ☀️
A further 1,500 primary schools will offer free breakfast clubs from September 2026 – this means over 200,000 more children will benefit in just over a year… pic.twitter.com/SZ0ojVQnOS
— Department for Education (@educationgovuk) November 20, 2025
However, in this earlier October video, the editor decided to include clips of parents replying with answers like, “have a lie-in”, “do something for myself” and “go for coffee with the other mums”. One mother is quoted as saying the breakfast clubs are helpful because it’s so busy in the mornings that she can’t remember if the kids have eaten.
What would you do with an extra 30 minutes in your day?
Free breakfast clubs are transforming mornings for 500,000 children – that’s 95 precious hours back each year while children get a nutritious start to their day.
Part of our Plan for Change ✨ pic.twitter.com/VA20pWYRKC
— Department for Education (@educationgovuk) October 1, 2025
It’s not the parents’ fault, to be fair. It’s the blame of whoever came up with this silly framing. Anyway, the resurfaced October clip has gone viral over the last few days, with people (some of the usual suspects, it must be said) questioning the tone and messaging of it.
1.
If you wished to discredit the entire concept of breakfast clubs then this is exactly the sort of video you would put out, the better to enrage the taxpayers who actually pay for it all. https://t.co/PatDeXpIvX
— alexmassie (@alexmassie) November 21, 2025
2.
I don’t understand this government at all. Breakfast clubs are supposedly for families struggling to feed their kids & get to work on time.
Not so parents can have a lie-in or go to the coffee shop or escape their kids for an extra 95 hours.
What the hell is the DoE thinking? https://t.co/iwd39364Gl— Janice Turner (@VictoriaPeckham) November 21, 2025
3.
Breakfast clubs are to encourage greater labour market participation among mums, and to make family life generally easier. The working week for many isn’t 9am to 3:30pm.
It’s a sensible, centre right policy. https://t.co/F0oaVMlxDs
— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) November 21, 2025
4.
Comforting to taxpayers. Unbelievable that anyone thought this video was a good idea. https://t.co/0lM9GTbPk0
— Sir Conor Burns (@ConorBurnsUK) November 21, 2025
5.
What is the govt’s message here? It seems to be ‘We’ll take your children off your hands so you can do less parenting’. https://t.co/qLZ2ZMAUBd
— Ian Leslie (@mrianleslie) November 21, 2025
6.
Is anyone – at all – at the Department for Education thinking ‘We’ve shit on the trifle with this one. Best take it down’? https://t.co/kfOzEwVP02
— Sunday Sport (@thesundaysport) November 21, 2025
7.
Could stand here waxing lyrical for 3+ days of why this country should provide free breakfast clubs. None of these arguments would have stood a chance of being mentioned..
In fact – as a childless taxpayer, this is pretty irritating? https://t.co/O303kGUrot
— Ava-Santina (@AvaSantina) November 21, 2025
8.
Let’s be clear.
You’re talking classic right-wing NONSENSE.
Breakfast clubs actually make family life far EASIER: they support parents’ employment, ease financial pressure, and give kids a positive, sociable start to the day.
That’s not more “government control”. https://t.co/bYS2vlfT1D
— Luke Charters MP (@lukejcr) November 21, 2025
9.
612k views. 64 likes. If this was my video, or indeed my policy, I might have a little rethink. https://t.co/dfeW0YX3kV
— Merryn Somerset Webb (@MerrynSW) November 21, 2025
10.
Only a government department ‘comms’ team could make an important supply side, family friendly policy look like a Costa coffee subsidy.
It’s better not to have most of this ‘content’. It’s literally net negative. You’re paying money to get the public against you! https://t.co/xzxo4kfX8l
— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) November 21, 2025
11.
No that’s one of the main reasons why there should be free breakfast clubs… not the idea that parents want an “hour off” from their kids https://t.co/VaKydA3dX2
— Ava-Santina (@AvaSantina) November 21, 2025
12.
My dad woke up an hour early for 12 years to make me breakfast before work. Feeding kids is a good investment- we avoid poor nutritional health outcomes throughout their lives, but I detest the implication that feeding one’s child is just about housework and calories. https://t.co/NsKMmHM8aa
— Stella Tsantekidou (@Stsantek) November 21, 2025
Source: Twitter/X/@educationgovuk
