Slim down, Tory MP tells rail commuters with large bottoms
TORY MP Anne Milton complained about being ‘squashed’ by a ‘large-bottomed man’ sitting next to her on the train yesterday.
The former public health minister, who has campaigned against obesity, urged overweight commuters to slim down to ensure they can fit into the seats properly.
Mrs Milton managed to get a seat on the crowded 7.34am train to London yesterday.
The Guildford MP tweeted: ‘Seats free on 7.34 but in the middle seat of three. Small-bottomed man to my left but a very large-bottomed man to my right, who is asleep with his arms crossed on his ample stomach, which makes that squashed feeling seem so much worse somehow.’
When she was a public health minister from 2010 to 2012 she controversially suggested that GPs should tell people they are fat rather than obese to help them lose weight. Yes-
‘You need to reduce its size’
terday, Mrs Milton said the overweight commuter ‘roused from his slumber’ as the train was waiting outside Waterloo station.
She added: ‘The man, his bottom and stomach have all now woken up and are slowly coming to life – whilst my bottom is now free.’
Afterwards, Mrs Milton told the Evening Standard newspaper: ‘If you are going to sit on one of those seats for three people, you need to take up one third of the seat. If your bottom is bigger than a third then you need to reduce its size.’ However, some Twitter users were unimpressed. One said: ‘Public transport is a nightmare, all know that. “HELP I’m sitting next to a fat person!” tweets only make it more uncomfortable?’
Another tweeted: ‘This is not the forum to vent such issues. As an MP you should have a little more decorum.’ And another post read: ‘ Good to see our elected representatives treating people with such contempt.’
It was a morning of drama for Mrs Milton as she had been knocked off her bicycle on the way to the station.
She was left shaken but unhurt after being involved in a collision with a van. And she said she was only saved from injury by the frame of her bicycle, which was damaged.
Mrs Milton said: ‘It was one of those things where we both started moving away from a junction and he [the driver] didn’t see me. He stopped and he was very nice. I’m fully recovered and had no injury. I was shaken. I wanted to weep, so I started a Twitter storm about big bottoms.’
In 2010 Anne Milton called on the NHS to ban terms such as ‘obese’, arguing they do not have the same emotional impact.
The former nurse said larger people were less likely to bother to try to lose weight if they were told they were obese or overweight than if the doctor was blunt and said they were ‘fat’. The obesity epidemic in Britain is showing no signs of slowing down. As many as a fifth of 11-year- olds are classified as obese alongside a quarter of adults – rates that have doubled in 25 years.