CHILDREN should be given 'body confidence' lessons at school, according to Hampshire MPs.

The All Party Parliamentary Group on Body Image also suggested calling someone “fatty” could be classed as a hate crime.

The group includes Conservative MPs Caroline Nokes (Romsey and Southampton North) and Caroline Dinenage (Gosport).

It spent six months looking at the issue, finding that five-year-old girls were suffering anxiety because of their size and half the population were worried about their body shape.

Ms Nokes said: “I think the scale of the problem is bigger than any of us thought when we started the inquiry. There is a whole generation growing up unhappy with their body shape.”