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David Cameron has been forced to back away from plans to scrap free school meals, saying he is "very proud" of the scheme.

There was uproar last week, when it emerged Tory axeman George Osborne could be putting the scheme on the chopping block in his looming spending review.

All children aged five to seven in England are eligible for a warm lunch provided by their school canteen – regardless of their family's circumstances.

The policy saves the parents of reception, year one and year two pupils, about £400 per child, per year.

It was a flagship Lib Dem measure in the five-year Coalition government.

(Image: Getty)

Professor Baroness Hollins, a former president of the British Medical Association, and Dr Nigel Carter, chief executive of the British Dental Health Foundation, are among 40 leading figures calling for the meals to be protected from cuts.

Asked about the future of the policy, which was introduced last September by the coalition, the Prime Minister told Sky News: "We're very proud of what we've done with free school meals. It was an excellent reform carried out in the last parliament.

"We are now going to have a spending review where obviously we have to make sure that we are delivering on our spending promises, but we are very proud of what we've done with free school meals."

The Conservatives ' 2015 manifesto stated it would keep providing free school meals.

Dave Prentis, general secretary of the Unison union, said: "Recent speculation that the free meals might be scrapped will have caused many cash-strapped parents much anxiety. They will have been worried that the one hot meal their children are guaranteed each day was in danger of being snatched away by heartless ministers.

"But thankfully the Government has seen sense, responded to the pressure put on them, and now free school meals will live to see another day."

A letter signed by Prof Hollins, Dr Carter and other representatives of charities including Diabetes UK and the National Obesity Forum said just 1% of packed lunches meet nutritional standards for schools.

The piece, which was published in the Sunday Times, said: "With one in three children leaving primary school overweight or obese, ensuring a nutritionally balanced school lunch has never been so important.

"A free school meals policy could end up paying for itself many times over and reduce the spiralling costs to the NHS of treating obesity and other diet-related illnesses. It would surely be short-sighted to cut the funding in November's spending review.

"We see the provision of a free healthy school lunch for infants as the bedrock of a transformative childhood obesity strategy - a strategy that also tackles the marketing and pricing of less healthy food and drink and boosts' schools' teaching of food education."

It added that children who are overweight face health risks such as asthma, early signs of heart disease and poor mental health.

Healthy eating campaigner Jamie Oliver said scrapping free meals would be "a disaster".