TV chef Jamie Oliver’s recipe to help vulnerable children and improve the health of our nation’s youngsters

Jamie Oliver speaks at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change's Future of Britain Conference in central London. Picture: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire

Vulnerable children should be given free school meals and all pupils leaving education should know how to cook at least 10 dishes.

They are the views of TV chef Jamie Oliver, who has also called for children to be protected from junk food advertising – a move endorsed by Henry Dimbleby, the British businessman and co-founder of food chain Leon.

Speaking at the Future of Britain conference, Mr Oliver laid out his three priorities for improving the health of Britain’s children.

He highlighted London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s plan to make school meals freely available to all primary-aged pupils for 2023/24, a policy the chef suggested should be replicated across England.

In February, Labour’s Mr Khan said a one-off £130 million programme, which comes into effect from September, would help struggling households amid the cost-of-living crisis.

Funded by additional business rates income, it is estimated the move will help around 270,000 primary school pupils and save families in London around £440 per child across the year.

Currently, households in England receiving universal credit must earn below £7,400 a year before benefits and after tax to qualify for free school meals.

Mr Oliver said it was ‘profoundly important’ for the most vulnerable children in the country to receive free school meals.

The 48-year-old said: ‘As a country, as a team, we have to protect those children. We have to get that over the line.

‘Mayor Sadiq is actually doing it…in Wales you get it, in Scotland you get it. England is the meanest.’

Asked what he would say to politicians in power about his free school meals proposal, he replied: ‘Just fix it, it is easy, get it done, crack on.’

Mr Oliver was speaking in the same week that The News reported that record numbers of Portsmouth children were eligible for free school meals.

Department for Education figures show 9,235 pupils were eligible as of January – up from 8,737 the year before.

That meant 33.4% of all pupils in the area could receive free school meals.

The number of eligible children across England has increased every year since January 2018, when there were 1.1 million (13.6%). This year, the figure rose to 23.8%.