A KEY vote tomorrow could bring back the prospect of thousands of Muslim children in East Lancashire boycotting ‘halal’ meat in school meals.

Lancashire county councillors were today under pressure from both sides of the debate on whether animals need to be pre-stunned before slaughter to meet Islamic law.

They will have a free vote on the issue at a meeting of the authority’s Full Council after its leader Geoff Driver revived a row from 2012 when the authority banned all meat from its 600 schools where pre-stunning has not been used.

Then the Lancashire Council of Mosques told Muslim families to boycott all such ‘halal’ meat as it did not meet their interpretation of Islamic law.

Thousands of children at 45 county council schools in Burnley, Pendle, Hyndburn and Rossendale, as well as five in Blackburn with Darwen borough supplied through the authority’s central catering unit, refused to eat meals containing the meat.

Richard Spedding, secretary of Lancashire Secular Humanists, is urging councillors to vote to ban meat from non-pre-stunned animals, said: “The council need not be bullied into an unethical and regressive policy decision by self-appointed leaders claiming to speak on behalf of Muslims.”

LCM chairman and Burnley resident Abdul Hamid Qureshi said: “We would urge councillors to vote for the current position where schools have the choice about what form of Halal meat to supply based on the beliefs of their pupils and their families.”

Labour group leader and Nelson East councillor Azhar Ali said: “I shall vote for the status quo so schools have the choice on what kind of Halal, and indeed Kosher, meat to supply their pupils.”

Cllr Driver said: “In my view it is abhorrent to kill an animal without stunning it because of the distress it causes. Tomorrow members can vote with their conscience.”

But Pendle Central Tory Cllr Joe Cooney has said he will vote against the banning of halal meat that is not pre-stunned.

Blackburn with Darwen council leaves the decision on what kind of Halal certification is required for meat supplied to Muslim pupils to individual schools and their headteachers

A spokesperson for Lancashire County Council said: “Cabinet received a report relating to the implications of only supplying stunned Halal meat to schools and other council establishments.

“ In view of the strongly-held opinions on the subject, it was agreed that the issue will be considered at the next Full Council meeting with a decision going to a free vote, to enable members to vote according to their conscience.”