LABOUR’S claim that children will go hungry as a result of benefit changes is “plain wrong” and “a disgraceful attempt to scare parents,” Swindon’s MPs insist.

The scathing comments come after Labour said that changes to free school meals entitlement would mean that “a million children” would be denied a free hot meal at school, a claim hotly disputed by the government and independent fact checkers.

On Tuesday, Labour tried to block the proposed changes, but was defeated by 312 votes to 254 in the House of Commons.

During the rollout of Universal Credit, the children of parents who receive the benefit have been entitled to free school meals. But the government wants to introduce a net household earnings threshold of £7,400.

Sarah Church, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for South Swindon, and a school governor with specific responsibility for Pupil Premium spending, said the decision to put the changes to a vote in the Commons had been “very important” and she launched damning criticism of Swindon’s MPs Robert Buckland and Justin Tomlinson for voting with the government.

“It was very disappointing to see Swindon’s Tory MPs take no account of the impact of the changes to free school meal entitlements on their constituents, and to vote blindly with the government,” she said.

Before the vote, she had written to Mr Buckland, her Tory rival for the South Swindon seat last June, urging him to vote down the plans.

“If Robert Buckland votes to literally take hot dinners away from the children of his constituents, I don’t know how he will be able to hold his head high in our town,” she said.

But Mr Buckland hit back in no uncertain terms, accusing Labour of deliberately misleading voters.

He said: “Labour’s claim is plain wrong and I am extremely concerned that they continue to make it. No child will lose their entitlement to free school meals during the rollout of Universal Credit as a result of these changes. In fact, our plans mean an extra 50,000 children will be eligible for a free meal at school by 2022.”

North Swindon MP Justin Tomlinson agreed. He said: “Absolutely no children will lose their free school meals. In fact, 50,000 more children will receive free school meals under this government plan.”

He added: “Labour’s shameful and disgraceful attempt to mislead and scare local parents were exposed by the Channel 4 fact check investigation and Sarah should be ashamed to peddle this lie for cheap political gain.”

Though Labour got their figures from national charity The Children’s Society, which claimed that “a million children in poverty will miss out on a free school meal under the government’s proposal”, the MPs have also pointed to independent analysis that backs up their position.

Examining the claims and counter-claims, Channel 4’s fact checkers recently concluded: “This is not a case of the government taking free school meals from a million children who are currently receiving them: it’s about comparing two future, hypothetical scenarios. Both of them are more generous than the old benefits system.”

They concluded: “Labour aren’t telling the full story about free school meals.”

Mr Buckland drew attention to the fact that, since 2010, the government has extended the availability for free school meals to disadvantaged students in further education and introduced universal infant free school meals.

The Department of Education has also said that no one who currently gets free school meals as part of the early rollout of Universal Credit will lose their entitlement once the rollout is complete. The people who will be subject to the means test are future Universal Credit claimants.

But Ms Church insisted that her comments “were made in the best interests of some of the poorest people in Swindon” and claimed the MPs had “not taken the time to look at the human impact of their government’s policy”.

The government said the move is “necessary to ensure that this funding is targeted towards the most disadvantaged families”.