WESTMINSTER has rejected a Labour motion to provide free school meals for children through the holidays.

The plan, which would have extended the provision of hot food for children until Easter 2021, was rejected by a majority of 61.

A total of 322 MPs voted against the motion, while 261 voted for it.

The vote prompted a furious response from Marcus Rashford, the Manchester United football player who made headlines after pushing the Government to U-turn on their school meals policy earlier this year.

Rashford said: "A significant number of children are going to bed tonight not only hungry but feeling like they do not matter because of comments that have been made today.

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"We must stop stigmatising, judging and pointing fingers. Our views are being clouded by political affiliation. This is not politics, this is humanity."

Boris Johnson had told his Tories to vote against the Labour motion, arguing that it was not schools' job to provide food through the holiday period.

Of the six Conservative MPs with constituencies in Scotland, not one of them decided to vote for providing children with free meals.

David Duguid, the MP for Banff and Buchan, Alister Jack, the MP for Dumfries and Galloway, Andrew Bowie, the MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, John Lamont, who represents Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk, and David Mundell, the MP for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, all voted with the Government.

In a move sure to be read as a further attempt to divorce the Scottish Tories from their London affiliates in the eyes of voters, Douglas Ross abstained.

Every SNP MP voted to support the Labour motion with the exception of Midlothian's Owen Thompson.

An earlier version of this article said that Thompson abstained. This was not entirely correct. He was at Westminster and due to vote in favour of the motion, but an unforeseen family emergency meant he had to leave, and did not have time to arrange a proxy.

Thompson has made it clear to The National that he supports free school meals, and would have voted in favour if circumstances had allowed.