May ditched plan to halve rates of childhood obesity

PLANS to halve the levels of childhood obesity within a decade were scrapped by Theresa May, it emerged last night.

A late draft of government proposals reveals that David Cameron had planned to make the pledge as part of a comprehensive strategy.

But after a series of delays the former prime minister failed to publish it before quitting Downing Street in July.

When the document was finally released in August, after Mrs May became Prime Minister, 24 of its 37 pages had been cut along with many of proposals to battle the obesity crisis.

A section entitled ‘Challenging retailers to promote healthier options’ had included a ban on cartoon characters promoting unhealthy food and a motion to make supermarkets remove such items from check-outs.

The cornerstone of the draft plan was to cut obesity by half within the next ten years, mean- ing 800,000 fewer obese children by 2026. This pledge was abandoned and the published plan simply promised to ‘significantly reduce’ childhood obesity in the next ten years.

While exercise was a key topic in the published strategy, the caveat that this alone would not combat obesity was dropped.

The original plan, believed to have been drawn up in June, stated: ‘We must recognise that increasing the amount of exercise children undertake will not in itself solve childhood obesity.

‘The number of calories we can burn through physical activity is dwarfed by the amount we can easily consume through food.’

The late draft was obtained by a Channel 4 Dispatches programme, The Secret Plan To Save Fat Britain, which will be shown tonight at 8pm.

Yesterday healthy eating cam- paigner Jamie Oliver blasted the decision, asking Mrs May: ‘Why do you think it is acceptable to fail our future generations?’

Writing in a Sunday newspaper, the chef said: ‘After two years in the making, it took just 36 days for May to dismantle Cameron’s plan, and she has not replaced it with something better, bigger, bolder, braver or even something that is fit for purpose. ‘What happened? Was it too big for her? Did parts of the food industry start to bite back? Nothing has changed to warrant milder action.

‘Things have not got better, they have only got worse, especially in our most disadvantaged communities.’

The final version of the document estimated the cost of obesity to Britain as ‘between £27billion and £46billion, which

‘A pathetic plan’

is more than the sum of all council tax paid in the UK’.

Campaigner Graham MacGregor, professor of cardiovascular medicine at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, said: ‘It was a pathetic plan – it didn’t include any restrictions on marketing or promotion or advertising to children, which is scandalous.’

The Department of Health said: ‘Our plan to tackle child obesity is ground-breaking.

‘We are taking bold action though the Soft Drinks Industry Levy to cut the amount of sugar consumed by young people. Alongside this, our restrictions on advertising and promotion are among the toughest in the world.’