Britain will ban junk food advertising on the internet and daytime television in a bid to tackle childhood obesity, prompting criticism from the political right of “nanny state” intervention.
The government said on Thursday that the measure was included in the Labour manifesto, which led Keir Starmer’s party to a landslide victory in July, and would be introduced on October 1 2025.
The announcement came after Starmer promised sweeping reforms to the crisis-hit National Health Service (NHS), particularly with a greater emphasis on prevention.
Junior health minister Andrew Gwynne said in a written statement to Parliament that more than one in five children in England aged four or five “will be overweight or obese by the time they start primary school.”
When they leave school at age 11, the figure rises to more than a third, he said.
“These restrictions will help protect children from being exposed to advertising for less healthy foods and drinks, which evidence shows influences their dietary preferences from an early age,” he said.
There will be a blanket ban on advertising of very fatty, very sweet or very salty foods on television before 9pm and online.
The ban was backed by the Conservative Party led by Boris Johnson, who has spoken of his own struggle with weight gain, but was put on hold to give the sector’s manufacturers more time to adapt.
However, those on the political right criticized the move, calling it an attack on personal liberties.
These included the Conservative-supporting Daily Mail, whose front page on Friday carried the headline, “Nanny Starmer bans junk food adverts ‘to save the NHS’”.
It said: “Yesterday Keir Starmer ushered in a new era of the nanny state by unveiling plans to retroactively ban junk food advertising.”
The Labour government plans other interventions to ease pressure on the health system, such as banning energy drinks high in sugar and caffeine for children under 16.
The children’s think tank Centre for Young Lives on Friday urged the government to “ignore critics of the ‘nanny state’, raise taxes on sugar, ban the sale of energy drinks to children under 16, and introduce a national supervised toothbrushing programme in schools.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
