A Tory MP has denounced an activist's claim that teaching children not to eat with their hands is 'dripping with the control and shame of colonisation'.
Conservative MP for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire Lee Anderson has said the claims made by chef Joshna Maharaj are 'more rubbish' in a Facebook post on Monday.
Ms Maharaj wrote an article with the headline 'Why the way we teach kids table manners is actually kind of racist' in July last year.
She says children should be taught to eat with both utensils and their hands as well as being exposed to different cuisines early on.
Mr Anderson shared a screenshot of the article and posted it to his Facebook page with the comment: 'When in Rome. Different countries and cultures may have different ways of eating food. Chopsticks, cutlery, fingers etc...
Ms Maharaj wrote an article with the headline 'Why the way we teach kids table manners is actually kind of racist' in July last year
Conservative MP for Ashfield in Nottinghamshire Lee Anderson has said the claims made by chef Joshna Maharaj are 'more rubbish' in a Facebook post on Monday
'I taught my kids to use a knife and fork and not their fingers. Not once did I think of colonisation.
'In the UK it is good manners to use a knife and fork at the table. More rubbish.'
Although Ms Maharaj's article was written for Today's Parent magazine last year it has recently been shared again across social media with many seeing red over her comments.
The Toronto-based food writer and food activist explained how she believed people should rethink long-held notions of good table manners.
And she said that when she taught friends to eat with their hands in public, she could see how joyful it made them.
She said she was first taught how to eat with her hands using the Indian flatbread roti, before moving onto rice, but her parents also taught her how to use a knife and fork.
Mr Anderson shared a screenshot of the article and posted it to his Facebook page
She said: 'Recently, I chatted with someone who told me a story about her young niece, who goes to a prestigious preschool and was eating rice with her hands at lunchtime.
'The feedback her parents received was that this child needed to work on her table manners and use proper cutlery to eat.
'I immediately felt a rush of anger bubble up inside me when I heard this.
'The message that eating food with your hands is an unmannered way to eat is a real
