Jamie Oliver on vegans: 'They hate me'

'For them it is on or off – there ain’t no stepping stones, whereas I’m all about stepping stones'

'I have done more to push plant-based diets than any of them,' the celebrity chef says of animal rights campaigners (Rex)

Jamie Oliver has revealed that vegans hate him.

The celebrity chef and restaurateur admits that many of those who abstain from eating animal-derived products have found issue with him and his restaurants.

He told The Sunday Times Magazine: “The vegan diet tracks better than anything on longevity, health and lower cases of disease. I am split these days because vegans annoy me, but I also do care for them.

“And the clean-eating thing really annoys me but it is an energy that is coming out because the government and businesses lie a lot and because, while we are confused on packaging, we do not know what the f**k it is we are actually eating.

"They hate me because we do stories about higher welfare meat, which I am deeply passionate about, but for them it is on or off – there ain’t no stepping stones, whereas I’m all about stepping stones.”

The chef recalled an instance where his restaurant was raided by “20 scruffy, weird-looking fellas putting iPads of slaughtered animals in front of kids having spaghetti Bolognese".

“I have done more to push plant-based diets than any of them,” he said.

Oliver boasts that most of his books contain at least 65 per cent vegetarian recipes, and he has long supported the vegan lifestyle.

In 2014, he took part in "vegan week" in time for World Vegan Month because the ethical imperatives of the diet did “strike home".

In various interviews, he has said that he eats a vegetarian diet “up to three times a week".

Oliver has campaigned for healthier food for British school children by launching his Feed Me Better campaign, which aims to get rid of junk food, and began with axing the salty, high-in-saturated-fats turkey twizzlers from school canteens.