Jamie Oliver has just given his most candid interview

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TV chef Jamie Oliver launched a new campaign to crack down on sugar
His Channel 4 documentary, called Jamie's Sugar Rush, highlights problem
Targeting David Cameron and George Osborne to introduce a sugar tax
Controversial documentary shows the 'medieval' effects of too much sugar

By Charlotte Edwardes For The Daily Mail

Published: 19:42 EST, 28 August 2015 | Updated: 19:52 EST, 28 August 2015

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Jamie Oliver is the cuddliest angry campaigner I’ve ever met. He’s sitting next to me on a sofa in a thick-knit jersey and jeans with a golden tan (or, in the case of a chef, is it ‘browned’?) and he’s stretching, apparently without inhibition, so that his arm runs down the back of the chair behind me.

He’s angry, he assures me with a massive boyish grin. ‘Really, really f*****g angry.’ And ‘passionate’. And ‘more frustrated than anything’. And that’s the thing about Jamie Oliver: he’s completely relaxed, chirpy — even a tiny bit flirty — while being a hard-line political activist.

Today, he’s agitating for a sugar tax. He wants a levy of 20p per litre on sugary fizzy drinks — ‘the single largest source of sugar in our kids’ diets’.

This will, he argues, tackle the rising epidemic of rotting teeth and type 2 diabetes, and financially benefit the ‘crumbling’ NHS, which spends £30 million and £9 billion respectively on these issues.

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Cuddly campaigner: TV chef Jamie Oliver with his wife Jools and four children,Poppy Honey Rosie, 10, Daisy Boo Pamela, nine, Petal Blossom Rainbow, three, and Buddy Bear Maurice, two

As a mark of his commitment, if not his impatience, Oliver has introduced a tax on fizzy drinks in his restaurants — including Barbecoa and Jamie Oliver’s Diner — and is persuading colleagues in the restaurant world to do the same.

‘We’ll show the Government what can be achieved,’ he says.

Oliver is the chef with a social conscience. His ‘weird career’, as he calls it, has for years mixed recipes with strong messages about the state of the nation’s diet.

It’s exactly ten years since he launched School Dinners — a radical campaign to ban unhealthy lunches in schools. And there’s Fifteen, a restaurant chain set up to train disadvantaged young people for careers in the catering trade.

Happy couple: Jamie pictured together with his wife Jools. Oliver is a chef with social conscience, and has for years mixed recipes with strong messages about the state of the nation's diet

‘If School Dinners was Star Wars, this is definitely The Empire Strikes Back,’ he quips about his sugar tax initiative.

Jamie’s Sugar Rush, the Channel 4 documentary he’s made to launch his campaign, shows the gruesome — ‘medieval’ as he calls it — results of too much sugar.

A six-year-old boy has his rotten teeth pulled out with pliers by a medic, who tells the camera this grisly procedure happens to 26,000 primary school children every day in Britain.

Elsewhere, there are uncomfortably close shots of amputee stumps, while a voiceover says there are 7,000 amputations in Britain a year (and rising) because of sugar consumption linked to type 2 diabetes. Oliver wants to make the campaign so vocal that it becomes a mission for the Prime Minister.

‘This could be Mr Cameron’s legacy,’ he says. ‘I’m focused on this being personal to him. I’m not really as interested in him as a politician [so much] as a father.’

(When I ask what he thought of Cameron stuffing his face with Pringles on a flight recently, he answers with a chuckle: ‘Must’ve been hungry, mustn’t he? Poor old boy can’t have a Pringle.’)

Oliver even made a present for Cameron before one meeting with the PM by jazzing up a statistics graph that showed life expectancy of five to 11-year-olds from disadvantaged backgrounds today is lower than their parents’ generation.

‘It looked boring so I tried to design it and put it on good paper — gold foil — and framed it,’ says Oliver.

‘I thought I’d turn that into a present, and then wrote a message personal to him. I wasn’t sure if it was cheesy, but [children’s health] is all that matters.’

He shows a photograph of the framed graph, saying he feared it was ‘a bit rubbish’, but the next time he saw Cameron to talk about the sugar campaign, ‘it felt right’ to hand it over, ‘cos the conversation was going well. I was getting good energy’.

The gesture is very Jamie Oliver. He’s a master at turning vulnerability into an advantage. Even now, he’s clapping his hands over his face when he’s nervous, erupting into giggles, spinning his wedding ring, scrunching his face to recall a word.

Social conscience: Jamie Oliver serves up a healthy school dinner to pupils from Ealdham Primary School, Greenwich, in February 2005. His new Channel 4 documentary Jamie’s Sugar Rush, shows the gruesome — ‘medieval’ as he calls it — results of too much sugar

Outraged: As part of his radical new campaign, Oliver has introduced a tax on fizzy drinks in his restaurants — including Barbecoa and Jamie Oliver’s Diner — and is persuading colleagues in the restaurant world to do the same

He’s self-deprecating about his dyslexia — ‘I’m an idiot’, ‘I’m thick’ — and mocks his own lack of polish and awkward syntax.

But I’m still imagining the PM staring at the mad framed graph in his hands, wondering what the hell Jamie Oliver might do next. No, Jamie Oliver is certainly not ‘thick’.

Now 40, he appears to have scrubbed up his image. He’s slimmed down, ditched the edgy fashion and bleach-flecked Duran Duran hair and re-emerged as a homely sort of Socialist Sloane. Is this turnaround a side effect of his fight against sugar?

‘It totally fits with this campaign,’ he says. ‘I can’t remember exactly how much weight I’ve lost — I think 12kg [almost two stone].’

Also, turning 40 is an interesting one. You realise that you are not indestructible, but you also become much more paternal in general.

As well as cutting down on sugar, he started eating seaweed, eggs, handfuls of nuts — and quit alcohol during the week.

Another change was the 10pm bedtime (with silk eye mask and earplugs, no less) so he could achieve his habitual 5am start ‘with a twinkle in the eye’.

‘Also, turning 40 is an interesting one. You realise that you are not indestructible, but you also become much more paternal in general. I’m sure other people are the same: you look at your own kids, but you look at other people’s kids in the same way.’

He has no qualms, he says, about bowling up to strangers and interfering if he feels they are doing wrong by their children.

‘For sure, I say something. And I have done. I say: “Are you crazy?” And the reaction is usually: “Mind your own f*****g business.” But I’ve seen cola being fed to babies.’ He shakes his head in dismay.

There are no fizzy drinks at the Olivers’ house in Primrose Hill, North London — ‘the cheapest and easiest way to hydrate your children is with a tap’ — but his four children, Poppy, 13, Daisy Boo, 12, Petal, six, and Buddy, four, are allowed one as an ‘occasional treat’.

His wife Jools, who designs Little Bird, the children’s clothes range at Mothercare, is more ‘militant’, he says, but neither believe in total abstinence from sugar.

Militant: There are no fizzy drinks at the Olivers’ house in Primrose Hill, North London — ‘the cheapest and easiest way to hydrate your children is with a tap’ — but his four children, Poppy, 13, Daisy Boo, 12, Petal, six, and Buddy, four, are allowed one as an ‘occasional treat’

‘I’m not saying ban sugary sweets and drinks completely. I’ve never said that. I’m not a nutter.’

For example, he says: ‘Cake is important. You can analyse cake’s nutritional benefits, but there’s other things: psychological happiness, being normal, the joy of life.’

The children get involved in the kitchen. ‘Poppy bakes lots of bread. Daisy likes making salad cream. She does dressings, picks the salad, washes up, lays the table and all that sort of stuff.

‘And the two little ones just get involved, wanting to touch and taste everything and just love it.’ He’s most at ease when talking about family — making a point of saying ‘family is at the heart of everything I’ve done’ — and admits ‘Jools and the girls wear the trousers’.

Cake is important. You can analyse cake’s nutritional benefits, but there’s other things: psychological happiness, being normal, the joy of life.

Would he like to have more children? He screws up his face. ‘Interesting question.’ He pauses. ‘I think my wife would love it. But . . .’ He laughs. ‘That’s all I can say.’

Would you have a vasectomy? ‘I think that could be an option.’

I ask about his tendency to swear. ‘It’s not something I’m proud of,’ he says. ‘I have reduced it by about 60 per cent. My children get cross and tell me off all the time.

‘My kids don’t swear — at least that I know of.

He says having teenage girls is ‘interesting’. ‘They’ve worked out that their dad is a bit of an idiot. The romance has gone.’ He’s ‘not fully prepared’ for teenage boyfriends. ‘I’m seeking advice from everyone and it sounds like a bloody horror show.

‘I remember what I was like at that age, so I know I’m just going to be looking at a boyfriend and swearing to myself.’

He jokes: ‘I have a group of close friends that are all ex-Royal Marines, and we have a surveillance plan with tracking comms and standard secret service protocol, and we are contemplating doing it once to set a precedent, you know, so the boys are always wondering.’

Though Jamie doesn’t vote — and makes a point of disclosing it, so he can’t be accused of any political affiliation — Jools does.

‘And I honestly don’t ask her who for, because it’s her thing,’ he whispers. ‘Though I think I probably know what she did in the voting booth.’

Campaigner: Oliver has even set his sights on the Prime Minister. Oliver even made a present for Cameron before one meeting with the PM by jazzing up a statistics graph that showed life expectancy of five to 11-year-olds from disadvantaged backgrounds today is lower than their parents’ generation

Are his daughters political? ‘Jeeez, yes,’ he says. ‘Jeeez, yes. It’s equal opportunities and women’s rights and all that sort of thing.’

Perhaps he’ll set them on Cameron, a new line of attack in getting him to introduce a sugar tax.

Of course, it is a serious issue that goes to the heart of one of the biggest crises facing this country. But is Jamie worried that the sugar debate — like tobacco — will inflame sensitive class issues because so many seriously overweight children are from poorer backgrounds?

‘Course it will,’ he says. ‘But whatever gets taken from those communities [in financial terms] will be given back tenfold.

‘I’m not asking for a sugar tax, end of story. The money it raises would be ring fenced — given to the NHS, schools and initiatives. It’s about a grown-up approach to fighting the obesity problem.’

He’s ready to ‘get a kicking’, he says, from people in the food and drinks industry, who will no doubt scoff that, being worth a reported £180 million, he can well afford to pay more for what his children consume.

‘Some people might see me as middle class. They might say: “Your kids go to private school.” But I’m a working-class kid. I went to a regular school.’ Actually, he hated school and says his real rehearsal for life was The Cricketers in Clavering, Essex, his parents’ pub.

Showman: Jamie has transformed himself for a TV chef to a social campaigner. His new dream is to see George Osborne, the Chancellor, include in his red box on Budget day a levy on sugar, alongside tax increases on alcohol and tobacco

‘Growing up in the pub was an amazing school, without that I would’ve been an absolute mess because I was terrible at school.

‘I was always being pulled out of classes to go to special needs lessons. And that is something all dyslexic kids remember.’

He describes himself as ‘a strange sort’. ‘As a kid I wasn’t very bright and I was very hyper. I think I was very cuddly and my parents thought I had Attention Deficit Hyper- activity Disorder (ADHD).

I was terrible at school. I was always being pulled out of classes to go to special needs lessons. And that is something all dyslexic kids remember.

Jamie Oliver

‘I don’t know if I do. I could be deeply sincere and serious, and then an absolute idiot.

‘Kids write to me who are dyslexic or have ADHD, saying how important it is to find something practical you can apply your intelligence to. You just need to find your thing.’

For Oliver, obviously, that was in the kitchen. ‘I was cooking at eight. My knife skills are the same as they were when I was ten — I swear.

‘When it was rough, when I was having a bad time at school, I never let my confidence be destroyed because I knew I was going to be a chef.’

His dream is to see George Osborne, the Chancellor, include in his red box on Budget day a levy on sugar, alongside tax increases on alcohol and tobacco.

‘Awww, if he said sugar as well, pffff,’ Oliver makes a gesture of ecstatic triumph. ‘That for me would just be the most incredible thing.’

But it’s not just about the tax, he says, it’s about the Government sending a message to the sugar industry globally.

What would that message be? ‘It would be Osborne saying: “Look, we love ya, but behave.” ’