There is still time to stop the junk food ads ban being railroaded for short-term political ends
- Jamie Oliver is a chef and campaigner
You really couldn’t make it up. Once again, the government has got itself into a fine mess. This time, it has gone back on its promise to make child health a priority, blowing a massive hole in its own obesity strategy that at one stage looked genuinely progressive and even world leading.
Let’s take a closer look at what just happened. At a time when child obesity has had the biggest annual spike since records began, and when kids from lower income families are twice as likely to be obese, Boris Johnson and the health secretary, Sajid Javid, have U-turned on the central policies in their own obesity strategy. They have delayed the ban on junk food advertising and multi-buy supermarket deals. These policies have only recently become law – in the case of the advertising restrictions they passed through parliament only last month.
Jamie Oliver is a chef and campaigner
