Dear Prime Minister,
Today you have thrown away your right to claim England is world-leading in its policies to promote children’s health. You have told us time and again that your government would deliver on its strategy, including ending junk food advertising to children, only to u-turn after the law has already passed. At a time when child health has worsened over the pandemic so that now 1 in 4 children leave primary school with obesity, and people who live in lower income areas are twice as likely to be affected, you are delaying policies that are both vital for levelling up and popular with 74% of the public. It is not too late to reconsider and protect the next generation from diet-related disease. Please don’t u-turn on child health.
Signed by:
Jamie Oliver, Chef and Campaigner
Ian Walker, Executive Director of Policy, Information and Communications, Cancer Research UK
James Toop, CEO, Bite Back 2030
Chris Askew, Chief Executive, Diabetes UK
Dr Charmaine Griffiths, Chief Executive, British Heart Foundation
Anna Taylor OBE, Executive Director, The Food Foundation
Jyotsna Vohra, Director for Policy and Public Affairs, Royal Society for Public Health
Caroline Cerny, Alliance Lead, Obesity Health Alliance
Kath Dalmeny, Sustain, the Alliance for Better Food and Farming
Barbara Crowther, Children’s Food Campaign
Stephanie Slater, School Food Matters
Professor Maggie Rae, President, Faculty of Public Health
Tim Lang, Centre for Food Policy
Professor Graham MacGregor, Action on Salt and Sugar
Matthew Philpott, Executive Director, Health Equalities Group
Rebecca Sunter, Childhood Obesity Programme Director, Impact on Urban Health
Patti Rundall, Baby Milk Action
Maria Bryant, UK Association for the Study of Obesity
Paul Aveyard, Professor of Behavioural Medicine, University of Oxford
Lorraine Tulloch, Programme Lead, Obesity Action Scotland
Dr Mimi Tatlow-Golden, Senior Lecturer, The Open University
Professor Mark Petticrew, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Prof. Niamh Fitzgerald, Institute for Social Marketing & Health, University of Stirling
Professor John Wass, Professor of Endocrinology, Oxford University and Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) NHS England
Louise Davies, Founder, Food Teacher’s Centre UK
Rob Percival, Head of Food and Health Policy, Soil Association
Dr David Strain, Chair of the British Medical Association’s Board of Science
Professor Emma Boyland, Chair of Food Marketing and Child Health, University of Liverpool
June O’Sullivan, CEO, London Early Years Foundation
Jude Taylor, CEO Together Active Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent