The National:

A PRIVATE school in West London has taken 'out-of-touch' to Conservative-peer levels with its special lunch offering.

St Paul's Girls' School is facing a backlash after attention was drawn to its "Austerity Day".

Pupils, who pay fees of £7,798 per term, were served up "simple food" to help teach them about the lives of "less fortunate" people.

So, what did the poor souls have to subsist on?

They had baked potatoes with beans and coleslaw for lunch. That is, genuinely, someone's idea of what living under brutal Tory austerity is like for the "less fortunate".

Oh and, naturally, they also had dessert – they were offered a choice of fruit for that course.

That meal makes quite a difference from their poster advertising Austerity Day. On it, a kind waiter lifts the lid on a meal of three peas.

The school tweeted: "Today was the final Austerity Day of the year. Students and staff had baked potatoes, with beans and coleslaw, for lunch, with fruit for dessert. The money saved will be donated to the school's charities."

It has been deleted since ... but not before it was screenshotted.

Items on the usual menu include a warm chicken and asparagus caesar salad, duck leg confit and seared cod with aubergine ratatouille.

Click here to see their full menu.

Speaking to the BBC, a spokeswoman for the school said: "For many years, St Paul's has arranged regular lunches when simple food is served and the money saved given to local charities.

"The aim is also to raise the awareness of our students to those less fortunate than themselves.

"The choice of the word 'austerity' is to draw attention to the fact that others around them are facing significant economic difficulties."

So, apparently, the school think pupils having baked potatoes, beans and coleslaw for lunch will teach them about Tory austerity.

Actually starving the children of their meal would be closer to the truth of a frightening number of cases.