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Jamie Oliver is ready to ‘fight’ Prime Minister Liz Truss over her stance on free school meals for children.
The TV chef has five children, three of whom are of school-going age, and has previously successfully campaigned to make school dinners healthier – which he recently admitted he still gets stick for.
Now Jamie, 47, is fighting two battles: for Britain to be healthier and for more schoolchildren in England to receive free lunches.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Jamie said he understands people will be listening to the row and thinking ‘it’s a parent’s responsibility to nourish their child,’ but pointed out that currently only households earning under £7,400 a year are eligible for free meals.
‘We are talking about the most vulnerable kids,’ he said, adding that even if a household is on benefits it does not mean their children will be fed for free at school.
Jamie was questioned about his relationship with former PM Boris Johnson, who had appeared to agree to the chef’s pleas in regards to school dinners before he was replaced by Liz Truss in the role.
Boris Johnson had appeared to be on board with Jamie’s campaigns before he stepped down as Prime Minister (Picture: Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock)
Jamie seemed totally unimpressed with the current government as he pleaded for kindness (Picture: BBC)
‘He had to nearly die and have a child to put him in the frame of mind to do the right thing,’ Jamie quipped, referring to Johnson’s time in intensive care with Covid-19 at the beginning of the pandemic.
And as for new PM Truss, Jamie didn’t hold back.
‘I have no faith,’ he declared.
‘We’ve been tracking her and her views for six, seven years. She’s not going to change. She has a view, that’s it.’
Liz Truss is a ‘ship in the night,’ the TV chef predicted of the new PM (Picture: Getty Images Europe)
Predicting that Truss’ government won’t last, the chef said he is feeling ‘calmer’ because he believes the current Prime Minister will be ‘a ship that passes in the night.’
‘If you can create an environment where every child has the ability to thrive at school’ it leads to better opportunities in the future, he claimed, but the issue is ‘no one’s taken it seriously yet.’
He added he was ‘up for the fight’ against Truss’ position on free school meals, explaining: ‘We owe it to every child.
‘It doesn’t affect my kids, does it? We’re talking about our kids.’
He went on: ‘Kindness needs to be injected through [the Conservatives] if they’ve got any chance.
Jamie shares five children with wife Jools, and said the free meals campaign won’t apply to his family but should help all children who need it (Picture: Rex)
‘I don’t know if they’ve got it in them to show this kindness. Being productive and pushing forward of course – but at what cost?’
It is more important than ever, he said, for the threshold to open up and allow more children to avail of free lunches, revealing: ‘What we’ve got now is kids are coming in with nothing. They’ve got nothing, even in their lunchbox.
He said there were around 800,000 kids in England who should be getting free lunches but aren’t, ‘and the pressure on those parents is profound.’
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The star also touched on his campaign to ban buy one get one free offers in supermarkets, claiming ‘it makes people spend more, eat more and waste more.’
Jamie added: ‘The reality is if you speak to the best minds in economics, they’ll tell you that if you output healthier kids, they’ll give you a more profitable country with better GDP.’
The chef is married to Jools Oliver and the pair share five children, the youngest three of whom are still in school.
Together the couple have Poppy Honey Rosie, 20, Daisy Boo Pamela, 19, Petal Blossom Rainbow, 13, Buddy Bear Maurice Oliver, 11, and River Rocket Blue Dallas, 6.
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MORE : Jamie Oliver’s wife Jools suffering from ‘deeply scary’ long Covid for two years
The TV chef is campaigning for a healthier Britain.