I didn’t let my children eat meat until they were 10: Keir Starmer

LONDON: Keir Starmer did not let his children eat meat until they were 10 years old – and said his daughter has “never in her life” tasted it.

The Labour leader, a pescatarian, and his wife Victoria, a vegetarian, have always refrained from preparing meals with meat or fish at home for their two children, who are now 12 and 15, he revealed.

Speaking on the Table Manners podcast, hosted by pop singer Jessie Ware and her mother Lennie, Sir Keir said: “What we said to the kids was, by the time they were about 10, ‘it’s up to you’.

“We don’t have meat or fish in the house, we don’t cook it, until they’re about 10 obviously they’re just eating with us.” He added: “And then at the age of 10 we said, ‘you can do what you like’ and our boy said ‘great’, so the moment we go out there’s a Deliveroo for Kentucky Fried Chicken or McDonald’s.

“So he’s taken full, sort of, liberty with the licence to do what he likes.”

However, his younger daughter “has never in her life tasted meat or fish”, he added.

When asked whether his 15-year-old son was allowed to order non-vegetarian meals when out to eat with the family, Keir said: “We’re not bothered by that.” The Labour leader said he gave up meat about 25 years ago “as a matter of principle”, but said he is still tempted to eat it.

“I struggle with it because I love meat. I love it. If you give up fish or meat on a matter of principle you still hanker after it.” Keir originally stopped eating fish as well as meat, but went back to it after he found it “too much” to give up. However, he described his wife as a “proper vegetarian”.