Hodge 'overcooks' claims about Jamie

Children's Minister Margaret Hodge was today accused of misleading parents by claiming that Jamie Oliver was working closely with ministers on improving school dinners.

Mrs Hodge had claimed on BBC Radio that ministers had spent a year working with the TV chef to draft new policies.

Oliver's production company

said that was not true. They

had informed the Department for Education that the programme, which exposed the poor nutritional content in school canteens, was being made as far back as December, 2003, but did not hold any talks on policies.

The first meeting with any minister was last December when former education secretary Charles Clarke took part in the programme. Oliver has since met new minister Ruth Kelly.

The chef 's spokesman said there had been "brief chats" before the meeting with Mr Clarke, but nothing to justify Mrs Hodge's claim that she and other ministers had been working with Jamie Oliver".

A spokesman for the Education Department said: "The Government has engaged positively with Jamie Oliver's programme since it contacted the Government over a year ago. We believe the Jamie Oliver programme has done excellent work on the issues, and that is why we have met them on a number of occasions."