A protest of school children has sparked outrage as pupils from six institutions gathered outside the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool.

GB News host Andrew Pierce was left astounded by the demonstration hosted by the National Education Union.

He accused the union of using the school children as a “political tool”.

The children excitedly called on the Government to provide “free school meals for all” outside the Liverpool venue, handing out stickers and leaflets with their message on.

Speaking to GB News Political Editor Tom Harwood, one of the Deputy Headteachers of the schools said that the children “feel this is a really important issue” to campaign for.

Outlining the reason for their demonstration, Deputy Headteacher at Whitefield Community Primary School Marie Beale explained: “The children feel this is a really important issue, that everybody should be able to eat and to feel able to access school dinners and to learn.

“So they are really motivated to bring that before Government and try and change. We said London and Wales have free school meals for all, so why don’t Liverpool?”

Noting that the children have “come out of normal school” for the trip to the conference, Ms Beale added: “And so the children have wanted to be involved and see that their voice makes a difference.

“So they’ve come out of normal school time today to be here, we got up early, in fact we left at half seven this morning.”

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Pressed by Tom on whether there are “concerns” that the children are missing a day of school for the protest, Ms Beale responded: “Well, we feel it’s very important, like all school trips and events, so we’ll catch them up on what they’ve missed this morning. And they’ll have learned so much more to bring back to the other pupils as well.”

Defending the demonstration further, the Deputy Headteacher assured that campaigning for free school meals is “universal”, and isn’t pushing a specific political agenda.

She stated: “We feel this is a universal campaign, regardless of the political stance of the parties. We feel that this is something that all parties could get behind, so we don’t have a concern about that at the moment.

“It’s a universal need and we’re we’re pushing access to all. So we don’t feel like it’s particularly a political agenda in that way. It’s more an issue based campaign.”

Reacting to the protest, GB News host Andrew Pierce said the demonstration was “unbelievable”.

He told Tom: “Unbelievable, Tom. All the years I’ve been coming, I’ve never seen children used as a political tool.

“I saw those children earlier and I did wonder, what are they up to? Now we know. Absolutely astonishing.”

Expressing outrage at the decision by the schools, Shadow Education Secretary Laura Trott took to social media to condemn the protest: “It’s unacceptable to take children out of school to campaign on behalf of unions.

“You can’t decry school absence & then enable it. Children are not tools for political activism. Bridget Phillipson must investigate this immediately or show union loyalty comes first.”