Jamie Oliver has said Liz Truss will be a “ship that passes in the night”, arguing the Tory party needs an injection of kindness.
In a push for the government to extend free school meals – in line with a new campaign by The Independent – the celebrity chef warned he had “no faith” in the prime minister to break the cycle of child poverty.
“We’ve been tracking her in her views for six, seven years, she’s not going to change,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Yet the campaigner and restaurateur vowed he was “up for the fight” which Downing Street appears to have picked with him, after No 10 failed to rule him out as a member of the so-called Anti-Growth Coalition invented by the prime minister during her Tory party conference speech.
Insisting that he was not part of it, Oliver pointed to his history of employing more than 20,000 people and “travelling around the world saying how brilliant Britain is”.
“And that’s what we need to do as a country,” he said. “Just doing quick trade deals to the lowest common denominator and threatening British farming and British producers is completely bonkers”.
Pressed on arguments by allies of the PM that increased regulation – such as a ban on unhealthy two-for-one offers which he has pushed for, which Ms Truss condemned in her conference speech – risked putting firms out of business, Oliver claimed this was not “reality”.
“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’re going to have a more productive, more profitable country [and] better GDP,” he said.
Jamie Oliver doesn’t believe Liz Truss will last long
“To do that, you have to think in 10 to 20 years, not three-year cycles. I’ve been through six prime ministers, 13 education secretaries and none of them have taken seriously managing child health.”
Denouncing the concept of “nanny stateism”, he added: “This idea that everyone can choose for themself is actually not true.
“When you look at where poverty is, and ill-health, you can also see more marketing of junk food, less access. That’s why you see this repetitive cycle of poor people being kept poor, and health is a major part of that.”
While he has no faith in Ms Truss on the issue, Oliver suggested what was more important was “the tone and noise from the public to support a government that puts child health first”.
“We are talking about fairness,” the celebrity chef said, warning that the government’s sudden “narrative around levelling up” has “always been the narrative with school dinners”.
“It was always about catching the most vulnerable,” he said. “This idea that you live in a country where if you work hard, you put your head down, the sky’s the limit – theoretically, that’s true, but in reality you see the cycle just repeat, repeat and repeat.
“I just think kindness has to be injected through this party if they’ve got any chance, and I don’t know if they’ve got it in them to show this kindness. And yes, being productive and pushing forward, of course – but at what cost?”
Referring to the recent fight to force ousted PM Boris Johnson to U-turn on providing free school meals over the school holidays during the pandemic, Oliver said: “He had to nearly die though and have a child to put him in the frame of mind to do the right thing.”
Responding to the chef’s comments, the prime minister’s official spokesman said: “This is a government that takes action to protect people.
“We do provide a significant number of families with free school meals. Obviously we need to make sure we’re setting the right balance, and we are confident we are achieving that.”
