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Calls grew today for Theresa May to formally announce she has dumped her plan to scrap universal free school meals from the Queen’s Speech.

Celebrity chef and food campaigner Jamie Oliver said the Prime Minister would be committing “political suicide” if she tried to push it through Parliament.

He added: “I’ll be truly amazed if Theresa goes through with abolishing infant free school meals... Britain does not want this, parents do not want this, even Conservative ministers do not want this. Does Theresa really have the gall to ask our Queen to rob our youngest, most vulnerable kids of a proper nutritious meal?” More than 60,000 parents have so far signed a petition led by a London head teacher against the proposals.

Axing universal free school lunches for four-to-seven-year-olds and offering every child a free breakfast instead was one of the most controversial proposals in Mrs May’s general election manifesto. The free lunches were one of the Liberal Democrats flagship policies in the Coalition government and were introduced by then deputy prime minister Nick Clegg. Ditching them would save the Treasury £650 million a year but the proposal is unlikely to pass through the Commons with Mrs May’s minority government.

Immediately before the election, a YouGov poll suggested that the policy was the least popular in the Conservative manifesto, with 12 per cent of people supporting it.

Henry Dimbleby, co-founder of food chain Leon and co-author of the David Cameron-backed School Food Plan, said the Prime Minister needed to do the “decent thing” and announce that she is saving free school meals. He said: “It didn’t help that the manifesto drafters hadn’t done their sums and were forced to admit that costs would be three times as much as first thought.

“I doubt any Tory MP, with another election looming, would want to go out and defend this on the doorstep.”

Lib Dem MP Tom Brake said: “She has no mandate to snatch free school lunches from millions of children. These heartless plans must now be dropped from the Queen’s Speech.”

Tim Baker, head of Charlton Manor primary school in south London, who is leading the petition, said that ending free school meals would be “a step backwards”. @KateProctorES