Euro MP Christine Oddy is backing calls for the return of school milk and is urging local education authorities to take advantage of a European Union fund to help them do so.

She has written to the leaders of Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire Councils to remind them the EU Subsidised School Milk Scheme is available to cut the cost of supplying the drink to primary school children.

Ms Oddy believes that the return of school milk could help children’s nutrition by providing them with extra vitamins and minerals.

She said:

"With families leading increasingly frenetic lives and children often not getting a proper breakfast mid-morning school milk can make a very important contribution to their health, adding valuable extra vitamins and calcium."

School milk was withdrawn by Margaret Thatcher in 1971 when she was Education Secretary, a move which earned her the nickname "Thatcher the milk snatcher".

Ms Oddy continued:

"It is now so long ago many teachers and educationists do not realise there is an EU subsidy to give milk to five to eleven year olds. Of course, the subsidy doesn’t make milk completely free but I think it’s now time for schools to consider whether to bring it back."