Ms Truss said: ‘We shouldn’t moralise through the tax system and end up hitting those on lowest incomes hardest’
A senior minister has blasted England’s Chief Medical Officer, accusing her of trying to ‘moralise through the tax system’ by recommending a levy on all unhealthy foods to tackle child obesity.
Liz Truss, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said the plan by Dame Sally Davies to curb the spiralling crisis would unfairly target the poor.
Dame Sally, who once who once jokingly called herself ‘chief nanny’, wants parents to be encouraged to buy more fruit and vegetables.
She is conducting an urgent review of measures needed to meet the Government’s target to halve the levels of fat youngsters by 2030.
Some 29 per cent of children aged two to 15 are now overweight or obese in England, with 16 per cent of them being obese.
Dame Sally told BBC News she did not want to increase the cost of the ‘basket of food’ parents buy to go up, adding: ‘I want parents to be incentivised to buy healthy food. We need to make sure that fresh fruit and vegetables are cheap.
‘Maybe we have to subsidise them by charging more, by taxing unhealthy food. Parents are then nudged to buy the healthy version because it’s cheaper.’
But reacting to the story Ms Truss said: ‘We shouldn’t moralise through the tax system and end up hitting those on lowest incomes hardest.
‘People have to be able to make their own decisions’.
England’s Chief Medical Officer, Dame Sally Davies, said reducing childhood obesity is a ‘formidable challenge’. She is expected to publish her review by September
Her intervention came after Health Secretary and Tory leadership candidate Matt Hancock yesterday said ‘we should not rest on our laurels’ and called for her expert advice to help improve the plans.
‘We have already gone further than any other country to reduce childhood obesity,’ he said. ‘Our reformulation programmes are world-leading.
‘We are consulting on a number of new laws on advertising and promotions to make the environment healthier for our children.
‘I have no doubt that these policies will be effective. What I do not underestimate is the scale of the problem we face and we should not rest on our laurels.’
Matt Hancock said ‘we should not rest on our laurels’ as the Government tries to put measures in place to reduce the number of obese children by half by 2030
‘By 2030, if we want to see a real improvement to our children’s health we are going to have to use every tool in our arsenal,’ Mr Hancock added.
‘So today I have asked the Chief Medical Officer to report back on what else we can take forward.’
The Government’s childhood obesity action plan was first published in 2016 and set out measures which could help slim the nation’s children.
One of its flagship measures, the sugar tax on soft drinks, has already begun and raised £154million in its first six months.
Other initiatives include encouraging food and drink companies to reduce their sugar content by 20 per cent.
Food for sale in government-run buildings including leisure centres will be made healthier, and primary schools will make sure children get at least 30 minutes of exercise per day between lessons.
And low income families will continue to get Healthy Start vouchers for milk and fruit and vegetables, under the Government plans.
The Government is also considering banning energy drink sales to children and stopping junk food being advertised before 9pm.
Mr Hancock appeared determined to do more and will hope Dame Sally can recommend ways of improving the strategy and making it more likely to work.
Dame Sally said last year that voluntary agreements with the food industry had failed to sufficiently reduce sugar and salt consumption.
And, speaking in December, she also called for junk food to be taxed and vegetables subsidised to tackle the childhood obesity problem.
But the food industry has warned there is no evidence that additional food taxes can change consumer behaviours over the long-term.
‘The scale of the challenge we face on childhood obesity is formidable,’ Dame Sally said yesterday.
‘There is no silver bullet to a problem decades in the making and we need to think outside the box.
‘There are policies we know are effective, many of which this country is already putting into action. Now we must be bold and brave enough to keep going.
‘I want the UK to be the healthiest country in the world – supporting all of our children to have the best possible start in life.’
Childhood obesity has risen since the 1990s, with 25 per cent of children between two and 15 being overweight or obese in 1995, the lowest in 14 years.
While the proportion of children who were fat hit its peak in 2004 when it was higher than a third at 34 per cent.
The figure was continuously higher than 30 per cent from 2001 to 2011 and again in 2014.
Children who are obese are more likely to be fat adults and thus be at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease or cancer.
The Chief Medical Officer’s report is expected in September.
