Food giants and their 33 meetings with ministers in just three years
GREAT SUGAR TAX COVER UP
From Wednesday’s Mail
HEALTH ministers have given food firms unprecedented access to the heart of government under David Cameron, according to official records.
Between 2011 and 2014 there were at least 33 meetings between Department of Health ministers and representatives of supermarkets, food manufacturers and fizzy drink firms.
McDonald’s and Coca-Cola were both given two audiences with ministers. Other meetings were held with Mars, Subway, Nando’s and Kellogg’s. Supermarkets – including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and others – were also invited to meet Andrew Lansley, Jeremy Hunt and other top-ranking politicians.
The privileged access came at a time when the Government was resisting growing calls for laws to crack down on sugar consumption in a bid to tackle the obesity crisis.
The Mail revealed this week that David Cameron was opposed to the introduction of such a tax, despite not having read a report by Public Health England on the subject. Last night Norman Lamb, a former health minister in the Coalition government, claimed the Tories are too close to the food lobby.
The Liberal Democrat MP said: ‘ The whole approach has been based on voluntary action rather than anything regulatory. The question i s whether that has succeeded. I don’t think anything fundamentally has changed.
‘We need to rethink our approach and ask if it has led to too cosy a relationship with the food industry.’
He added: ‘We are prepared to use taxes and prices to address the impact of smoking, and to a degree alcohol. There is a case to look at same approach on sugar.’
The Department of Health says the meetings were about trying to persuade the food industry to improve the healthiness of their products through its so-called ‘Responsibility Deal’. But critics say they show that the voice of the food industry carries more weight than those of public health experts.
The new analysis of official records shows there were 33 meetings with food and drink firm representatives over the three-and-ahalf years between mid-2011 and the end of 2014 – the most recent records available.
This total does not include meetings of the Responsibility Deal steering group, which includes food and drink manufacturers and supermarkets and meets ministers periodically for round-table chats.
Andrew Gwynne, Labour’s public health spokesman, said: ‘People will be right to question whether ministers are too close to powerful vested interests to stand up for children’s health. Instead of taking the action needed to deal with the obesity epidemic, they are allowing the food industry to dictate government policy.’
Last night a Department of Health spokesman insisted: ‘We are not giving businesses power over health policy. But food manufacturers have a role – and indeed a responsibility – to help people lead healthier lives.’