A Tory former Health Minister has backed growing demands for Liz Truss to expand the free school meals programme.
Lord Bethell, who served under Boris Johnson, said ensuring all children in Universal Credit households get free school dinners would boost the economy by helping kids learn and improving their health.
Pressure is mounting on the Prime Minister to extend the scheme to more kids as rising fuel and food costs clobber Brits.
Some 800,000 children living in poverty miss out on free school meals under current rules, which only cover kids from Universal Credit households earning less than £7,400-a-year from work.
All young children in England can get free school meals up to the end of Year 2 but after that it only applies to households on certain benefits.
TV chef Jamie Oliver weighed in yesterday, saying the Government should act now to offer pupils in UC families free dinners.
And there are signs of Tory unease about the Government stance, with ex-Education Secretary Michael Gove piling in last week to demand free school meals for all UC households.
Lord Bethell told the Today programme: "The principle is that this is an acupuncture piece of policy that is an intervention at the most important times of a child's life so that they get the best attainment at school.
"They then have the best health outcomes during their life and they can be the most productive in their economy.
"For me, those are the three most important reasons for doing this."
He added: "This will have long term benefits and we shouldn't scrimp now on a measure like this where there'll be a big return in future."
Lord Bethell said the Prime Minister was reluctant to act as she was worried about nanny state-style interventions.
He said: "She is concerned that there is an infantilisation of the people, that measures like this are a form of collectivisation, and I understand where she's coming from on this, but I'm totally pragmatic.
"There are important economic reasons for making the £477 million expenditure on extending the free school meal programme."
The Mirror has joined forces with the National Education Union (NEU) to demand free school meals for all primary schools in England to ensure no child goes hungry.
Our campaign has been backed by more than 100 campaigners and politicians, including London Mayor Sadiq Khan and broadcaster Gary Lineker.
The Government says it has expanded access to the scheme to more than 1.9 million pupils and it has invested up to £24million in the National School Breakfast Programme, which provides free breakfasts to children in schools in disadvantaged areas.
