Tory trouble brewing over Jamie’s sugar tax
JAMIE OLIVER’S call for a sugar tax was last night set to spark a bitter row among Tory MPs.
The Commons health committee, chaired by Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston, is tomorrow expected to endorse the celebrity chef’s idea and back a levy on sugar-sweetened drinks.
Its new childhood obesity report, which heard evidence from Mr Oliver last month, is also thought to call for a crackdown on retailers selling multipacks of sugary foods.
But last night Tory MP Andrew Percy, who sits on the committee, slammed the sugar tax idea as ‘patronising nonsense’. He told The Mail on Sunday: ‘This is a classic nanny state reaction and it won’t work.
‘Slapping 10p or 20p on a can of sugary drink won’t make people change their behaviour.’
The Brigg and Goole MP declined to discuss the contents of the report, due to be published tomorrow. But he raised fears that a tax on sweet drinks would unfairly hit poorer families.
It is also understood that a second Tory member of the committee opposes a sugar levy. Sources said Andrea Jenkyns, MP for Morley and Outwood, had urged colleagues to instead focus on better education and food labelling.
She and Dr Wollaston, an exGP, both refused to comment ahead of the report. The row was brewing as a poll revealed only four in ten Britons think a tax on sugary drinks will tackle obesity.
The Populus poll, for the Food and Drink Federation, also found 67 per cent said a tax would penalise the majority who consume soft drinks responsibly.