'Lunch snatcher' Theresa May greeted by protests at Conservative manifesto unveiling in Halifax

Theresa May has been met by protestors as she launches the Conservative Manifesto in Halifax.

As she arrived in Yorkshire alongside her cabinet to launch the Tory pledges for the forthcoming election on June 8, the roads were lined with protestors holding placards that accused the government of ‘destroying our health, homes, jobs and education’.

Another placard read: ‘One fight we all unite’.

Strong criticism for the manifesto came from former Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg – who warned that huge numbers of children will lose their free hot lunches under Conservative plans to halt school funding cuts.

Under new Conservative policy, only children from poorer families will continue to receive free hot lunches and breakfasts throughout their education.

Instead, every pupil up to the age of 11 will receive a free breakfast, with the Tories claiming that it will be delivered at a cost of £60m a year – providing a £1bn cash injection for Education.

But Nick Clegg has attacked the move as ‘cynical’ and claimed that the new method of means testing would not reach all pupils living below the breadline.

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He wrote on Twitter: ‘Free infant lunches policy was saving millions of struggling families over £450. Breakfast covers fewer children. Cheaper for govt. Cynical.

‘4 in 10 kids who DIDN’T receive free lunches prior to infant provision were officially in poverty. So much for compassionate Conservatives.’

Others were quick to brand Theresa May a ‘lunch snatcher’, referencing Margaret Thatcher’s similar nickname upon ending the provision of free milk in the 1980s.

Sarah Olney, the Lib Dem education spokeswoman Sarah Olney said: ‘Margaret Thatcher was know as the ‘milk snatcher’. Theresa May will go down as the lunch snatcher.’

She added: ‘Children under Theresa May will go hungry: it is that stark, and that heartless. But she just doesn’t care.’