Tackling unhealthy food and obesity: how far will the new Labour government go?
The King’s speech confirmed Labour’s manifesto commitments to “restrict the advertising of junk food to children along with the sale of high caffeine energy drinks to children.”12 It’s a welcome signal that Labour is taking childhood obesity seriously. Although it will be rightly applauded, more still needs to be done to reverse persistently high obesity rates and entrenched inequalities. Data from the National Childhood Measurement Programme show that in 2022-23, more than one in five (21%) children aged 4-5 years and one in three (37%) children aged 10-11 years were living with either overweight or obesity.3 Both rates are lower than in 2021-22, but they are still higher among children aged 10-11 years than before the pandemic and stark inequalities persist. Rates of obesity among 4-5 year olds living in the 10% most deprived areas in the country are 12%—twice as high as in the least deprived areas where rates are just 6%. For children aged 10-11 years the difference is even greater,
