Chef Jamie Oliver says he has "no faith" in the new Prime Minister Liz Truss, and described her as a "ship that will pass in the night". The father-of-five was speaking in a BBC interview to call for the threshold for access to free school meals to be increased in England.
In England, household income has to be less than £7,400 to be able to claim free schools meals, a threshold he described as "mean" compared to Wales and Scotland. All of Wales' approximately 272,000 primary school pupils are set to get free lunches by 2024, as part of a deal between Plaid Cymru and the Labour Welsh Government.
Read more: Teacher tell of the worst packed lunches they have seen
The outspoken chef went on in the Radio 4 interview to declare that he had "no faith" in Liz Truss, as he slammed what he described as "quick trade deals" as a threat to British farming. He told the Today programme: "I have spent a lifetime not only employing 20,000 people but travelling around the world saying how brilliant Britain is. That is what we need to do as a country. We have an incredible country, but just doing a quick trade deal with the lowest common denominator, and threatening British farming and British producers, is completely bonkers."
He described how helping children to say healthy when they are young will help the country economically in the future and claimed that former prime minister Boris Johnson had to "nearly die and have a child" before he saw his point of view over school lunches.
"The reality is that if you speak to the best minds in economics in the country, in the world, they will tell you that if you output healthier kids, you are going to have a more productive, more profitable country, better GDP," he said. "To do that you have to think in 10 to 20 years, not three-year cycles. I have been through six prime ministers, 13 education secretaries, and none of them have taken seriously managing child health. This idea that everyone can choose for themselves is not true. If you look at where poverty is, and ill health, you can also see more marketing of junk food, less access and that is why you see this repetitive cycle of poor people being kept poor, and health is a major part of that."
And he went on to claim that the new government is not taking the issue of child health seriously. He said: "I have no faith, we have been tracking her and her views for six or seven years, she is not going to change. She has a view, that is it. The older me can be a bit calmer, because she will be a ship that passes in the night, and I am actually quite calm about the whole thing. I think, more importantly, the tone and the noise from the public to support a government that puts child health first. It means if you create an environment that will help every child to thrive at school. We know that children who have a breakfast, lunch and tea learn better, their educational attainment is better, they earn more, the are more productive, but no-one is taking it seriously yet."
He also called for more support for teachers: "I am up for the fight, because having spent many, many years looking at schools, I think our teachers around Britain need to be supported better. They are like the secret weapon of this country. We need to set them up to teach. If you have kids bouncing off the walls because they are having an energy drink for breakfast, or they are asleep because they have had no breakfast... we are talking about fairness."
Hinting that he believes the Tories will be voted out at the next election, in part for not 'putting children first', he said: "Kindness has to be injected through this party, if they have any chance. I don't know if they have it in them to show this kindness. Being productive and pushing forward is important, but at what cost?"
Mr Oliver wants 800,000 more children to get free school meals in England, but suggested that the Conservative leader will resist. The Naked Chef has called for the threshold to be opened for who qualifies as having a free school meal. In May he was outside Downing Street demanding then PM Boris Johnson scrapped BOGOF deals in supermarkets. His comments on Tuesday were praised, with writer Caitlin Moran saying: "Jamie Oliver on the Today programme, talking about child poverty - God, he's on his s**t. He's just.... a good person. Weird how unfamiliar that phrase feels."
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