"I think it's an irresponsible ticket stunt," he said.

The nurseries said they contained more processed food with lower protein content and fewer fruits and vegetables than meals provided by preschools.One preschool told the report: "Children are sometimes not used to being encouraged to try anything new! This is evident in some lunchboxes, where the contents never vary."

The rising cost of food was consistently highlighted within the report, with one preschool saying: "Fresh food is increasing in price all the time; food purchasing in general has risen significantly over the last two years."Another contributor said it was difficult to provide food on a budget whilst allowing for intolerances and allergies."We really try to accommodate food allergies, but more and more children are showing [as] intolerant and [have an] allergy, and it is really increasing our spending on food," they said.

The report recommends a nationally funded early years food scheme to support both preschool and parent-provided meals."Although there is a great deal of excellent work being done by preschools across Essex, there is a need for action to improve the nutritional landscape for young children, including improving children's relationship with food," said Dr Kay Agronricks, school of education head at ARU.

"We would like to see appropriate national funding for preschools to allow them to provide healthy food for all children.

"However, simply replacing lunchboxes with setting-provided food for one meal a day won't solve the wider issues for the child or their family, such as what will they eat at the weekend or during the holidays."Meanwhile Plaid Cymru will call for a cap on the annual donations that politicians can receive via a change to Senedd rules.

Andrew RT Davies, Welsh Conservative Senedd leader, said: “It’s time to put this issue to bed once and for all."He added: “In order to get on with the job of tackling Labour’s soaring waiting lists, the cancer crisis and poor educational attainment, we need to see a full, independent investigation into Gething’s campaign finances.”

Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth said: "The corrosive effect of unchecked campaign funding undermines the integrity of democracy. As a first step Vaughan Gething should repay the money but the least he can now do is support measures that ensure six figure donations to individual politicians are a thing of the past.”The Welsh government declined to comment ahead of the debates.