A bill to end term-time hunger for school children has received the backing of dozens of Christian MPs from different parties.

The bill, tabled by Christian Labour MP Frank Field, would place a duty on councils to automatically identify and register eligible children for free school meals. Recent estimates suggest 160,000 poor children in England are entitled but not registered to receive a free daily hot meal.

More than 125 MPs including numerous Christians from the Tories, Labour, SNP, DUP, SDLP and Greens have put their names to the free school meals (automatic registration of children) bill. The bill will be heard in the Commons today and aims to correct an anomaly whereby families have to apply for free school meals rather than be automatically enrolled.

It stems from a report published last week by the all-party group on hunger, which Field chairs. 'A route map to ending hunger as we know it in the United Kingdom' found a small group of local authorities using housing benefit records to identify families with children who were elgible but not registered. Once identified, the children were automatically enrolled with no need to complete a form unless they wished to opt out.

Field's 10 minute rule motion aims to make this practice a statutory duty on all councils.

An additional benefit for schools is that the pupil premium, a form of top-up funding, is directly linked to the number of children on free school meals.

"The policy of automatic registration for free school meals has delivered a win-win situation in those areas of the country that have been bold enough to embrace it," said Field ahead of the debate.

"By guaranteeing many more of our poorest children a hot meal every lunchtime during term time, the policy ensures substantial numbers of children need no longer struggle to concentrate on an empty stomach."

"My bill would make it their [councils'] duty to take it up and, in doing so, move us one step closer to abolishing child hunger in this country by 2020."

A number of Conservative Chrisians are backing the Labour MP's bill including Field's co-chair on the hunger group, John Glen. Others include David Burrowes, Fiona Bruce, Gary Streeter and Jeremy Lefroy. The bill also has support from a high number of Labour MPs including chair of Christians on the Left, Stephen Timms as well as fellow Christian Ben Bradshaw.

A full list of MPs backing today's bill is below:

Conservative

1. Andrew Bridgen

2. Andrew Rosindell

3. Anne-Marie Trevelyan

4. Bob Blackman

5. Christopher Chope

6. David Amess

7. David Burrowes

8. David Davis

9. Edward Leigh

10. Fiona Bruce

11. Flick Drummond

12. Gary Streeter

13. Graham Stuart

14. Glyn Davies

15. Heidi Allen

16. Henry Bellingham

17. Jeremy Lefroy

18. John Glen

19. Jonathan Djanogly

20. Kevin Foster

21. Martin Vickers

22. Nicholas Soames

23. Peter Bottomley

24. Philip Hollobone

25. Steve Baker

26. Stewart Jackson

27. Tim Loughton

Labour

28. Adrian Bailey

29. Alan Johnson

30. Alan Meale

31. Alex Cunningham

32. Alison McGovern

33. Andrew Gwynne

34. Andrew Smith

35. Angela Rayner

36. Ann Coffey

37. Barry Sheerman

38. Ben Bradshaw

39. Bill Esterson

40. Caroline Flint

41. Clive Betts

42. Colleen Fletcher

43. Dave Anderson

44. Derek Twigg

45. Diana Johnson

46. Emma Lewell-Buck

47. Emma Reynolds

48. Fiona Mactaggart

49. Gareth Thomas

50. Geoffrey Robinson

51. Gerald Kaufman

52. Gisela Stuart

53. Graham Allen

54. Graham Jones

55. Graham Stringer

56. Helen Hayes

57. Helen Jones

58. Iain Wright

59. Ian Austin

60. Ian Lavery

61. Ian Lucas

62. Ivan Lewis

63. Jess Phillips

64. Jenny Chapman

65. Jim Dowd

66. Jim Fitzpatrick

67. Jo Cox

68. Joan Ryan

69. John Mann

70. John Woodcock

71. Jon Cruddas

72. Jonathan Reynolds

73. Julie Cooper

74. Karen Buck

75. Karin Smyth

76. Kate Hollern

77. Kate Osamor

78. Keir Starmer

79. Keith Vaz

80. Kevin Barron

81. Liz Kendall

82. Liz McInnes

83. Louise Ellman

84. Madeleine Moon

85. Margaret Beckett

86. Margaret Greenwood

87. Marie Rimmer

88. Mary Creagh

89. Meg Hillier

90. Mike Wood

91. Nic Dakin

92. Pat Glass

93. Paul Farrelly

94. Peter Dowd

95. Peter Kyle

96. Robert Blackman-Woods

97. Robert Flello

98. Roger Godsiff

99. Ronnie Campbell

100. Rosie Cooper

101. Ruth Smeeth

102. Shabana Mahmood

103. Sharon Hodgson

104. Siobhain McDonagh

105. Simon Danczuk

106. Stella Creasy

107. Stephen Kinnock

108. Stephen Timms

109. Stephen Twigg

110. Steve McCabe

111. Steve Reed

112. Steve Rotheram

113. Thangam Debbonaire

114. Tulip Siddiq

115. Virendra Sharma

116. Wes Streeting

117. Yasmin Qureshi

118. Yvonne Fovargue

SNP

119. John Nicolson

DUP

120. Gavin Robinson

121. Jeffrey Donaldson

122. Jim Shannon

123. Sammy Wilson

SDLP

124. Mark Durkan

Green

125. Caroline Lucas