The Education Secretary refused three times to say whether she would bring in changes to stop thousands of eligible kids missing out on free school meals.

who gave evidence to MPs on the Commons' education committee, came under fresh pressure over children missing out on free lunches. The Mirror is primary-age children.

She repeatedly dodged questions on whether she'd bring in automatic enrolment for free school meals to make sure all eligible children have access. The MP probing her was left baffled after Ms Phillipson kept talking about and was forced to tell the minister: "Yes, we know about breakfast clubs." Ms Phillipson insisted she was looking "carefully" at automatic enrolment but refused to give any details on where ministers.

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Lib Dem MP Caroline Voaden, who was grilling Ms Phillipson on the issue, began by asking her why she had not included the policy in the government's new landmark “Nearly half a million children are missing out on free school meals that they are eligible for and we know that that then means that many, many schools are missing out on thousands of pounds of pupil premium funding that they could get," she said. "So could you tell us what the reasons are for not including auto-enrolment for eligible children of free school meals in the bill?”

Ms Phillipson replied: “We continue to look very carefully at this right across government with other colleagues. What we are setting out in the bill, as you know, is starting the process of rolling out breakfast clubs in all primary schools. I believe it is really important that children get a great start to the day. I understand the arguments that are made around auto-enrolment and we continue to look carefully at that.”

She was told that auto-enrolment had been successful in many councils, with Ms Voaden adding: “Is there a timeline… You’re looking at it but what does that mean?” Ms Phillipson said: “I can’t give you a timeline on it. What we are doing at pace, as you know, is starting the process of rolling out of breakfast clubs in primary schools.”

A frustrated Ms Voaden attempted a third time: “Yes, we know about breakfast clubs but I was asking you about free school meal auto-enrolment. Is there any plan to roll that out?” Ms Phillipson responded: “As I say, we continue to keep this area under review.”

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Almost half a million - 470,000 - kids are estimated to qualify for free school meals under the current rules but are not signed up. Local authorities, schools, charities and universities signed a recent letter co-ordinated by the Food Foundation calling for auto-enrolment, which warned some families are struggling with the burdensome application process, which can be unmanageable for those with poor literacy or who don't speak English as their first language.

Elsewhere the government has come under pressure to . Munira Wilson, the Lib Dem Education spokeswoman, told the earlier this month: "We need to be extending free school meals to every child in poverty as a first step because we know there's around 900,000 children across the country who are living in poverty, who miss out on a free school meal. These are families really struggling to get by, who are struggling to heat their homes, put food on the table.

The first began in November. Some 750 schools in England are being picked for a year-long pilot starting in April, as part of a massive expansion of provision. Parents will be able to get 30 minutes of free childcare at the start of the day, while pupils will receive a nutritious breakfast so hunger doesn't hold them back from learning.

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