Thousands of vulnerable children could go hungry if MPs vote to take away their free school meals tomorrow.

A government bid to reduce who is eligible would see the vast majority of Kirklees youngsters lose their right to a hot lunch.

Estimates by the Labour party are that about 6,400 pupils, out of the 9,300 that currently enjoy a free school dinner, would lose out.

Children under the age of seven would not be affected.

In Calderdale, 4,800 children would lose their lunch.

The threat of losing free school meals comes in legislation due before MPs on Tuesday morning.

The government wants to slash the income threshold for English families on universal credit to £7,400 a year.

Any parents earning more than that will be banned from claiming free school meals.

Kirklees school dinners

If the government’s plans go through it has been estimated about 1.1 million children will be excluded from free school meals.

Labour politicians have lashed out at the attack on the working poor and the party’s MPs have urged sympathetic Conservatives to support them in a last-gasp Parliamentary vote to block the changes.

Colne Valley MP, Thelma Walker, said she would be speaking in the House of Commons debate on Tuesday morning, in an attempt to persuade MPs to vote it down.

In her speech, she is expected to describe universal credit as a “failure”.

The speech will go on: “24% of children in my constituency live in poverty, in some areas this increases to 40%.

“For some of these children, whose parents are on universal credit, the hot nutritionally balanced meal they have for lunch at school will be their main meal of the day.

Colne Valley MP Thelma Walker.

“My local authority, Kirklees Council, has seen a 20% increase in pupils claiming free school meals over the last four years, which goes to show how hard the government’s austerity programme is hitting families.

“On average these free school meals are worth £440 per child per year.

“For a family on universal credit, earning over £7,400 a year, this would be a huge amount of money to find!”

Writing on his Kirklees Labour blog, Leader of Kirklees Council, Clr David Sheard , attacked the Prime Minister.

He said: “In a low down vindictive swipe at the working poor Theresa’s Terrors tried to sneak in a cut to free school meals that would deprive 6,400 children in Kirklees alone, of free school meals.

“The Commons’ crunch vote over the changes to the disastrous, universally hated universal credit, is a response to the sneaky attempt by ‘Miserable Ministers’ to push through the changes last week on the nod.

“Thankfully the underhand dastardly deed did not succeed.

“Let us hope that enough Tory MPs have just a little bit of human kindness left to enable them to scupper this scrupleless scheme.”

Kirklees Council leader Clr David Sheard

Northern Ireland is set to escape the change as its government has taken direct control of spending budgets and will leave the income threshold at £14,000.

The Children’s Society and the Resolution Foundation think tank has warned that because of the way that universal credit is calculated, parents will face a ‘cliff edge’ where they lose out if they earn a penny over the £7,400 threshold in England.

Those with one child will need to earn an extra £1,100 a year to cover the cost of school meals.

In Kirklees all children in Reception class and Years 1 and 2 – four to seven-year-olds – get free lunch.

From Year 3 onwards, parents have to apply to retain them if they are on income support, universal credit or a number of other benefits.