Boris Johnson’s libertarian journey on tackling obesity

The prime minister’s permissive views have collided with the reality of coronavirus, writes Ashley Cowburn

The PM needs the country to be in shape for a potential second wave (PA)

I say let people eat what they like,” the backbencher Boris Johnson told a fringe meeting of the Conservative Party conference in 2006. According to a report in The Daily Telegraph at the time, the then-shadow education minister was supporting mothers in Yorkshire who had passed pork pies through the school fence in an act of defiance against the introduction of “over-priced, low-fat rubbish”.

“Why shouldn’t they push pies through the railings?” he asked. “I would ban sweets from school but this pressure to bring in healthy food is too much. If I was in charge, I would get rid of Jamie Oliver and tell people to eat what they like.” It was just one libertarian view from Mr Johnson, who has consistently rallied against the so-called “nanny state” on issues such as obesity during his political career.

Just last year during the Conservative leadership, he also vowed to put a stop to any rise in what he described as “sin taxes”, which included levies on alcohol, tobacco and unhealthy foods.

But now, the prime minister is preparing to roll out a major public health campaign designed to tackle obesity. Reported measures include policies such as banning junk food adverts before the 9pm television watershed and displaying calories labels on take-away food and restaurant meals. The prime minister’s libertarian views have collided with the reality of coronavirus which has shone a spotlight on obesity.

According to a recent report by Public Health England those who are overweight are at a higher risk of hospitalisation and death if they contract Covid-19. “You are more likely to be admitted to hospital, more likely to need treatment on an intensive care unit, we also know that it does increase your risk of death and it contributes to the various disparities we’ve seen,” explained Professor John Newton on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. If Mr Johnson is to best prepare the country for a potential second wave of the coronavirus, it is clear his advisers have urged him to encourage the public to lose weight over the summer months in an effort to reduce people’s risks to the effects of Covid-19 in the winter months.

Asked recently on Times Radio whether he’d had a Damascene experience with obesity – after his own experience of weight loss as a result of time spent in intensive care with coronavirus – he replied: “Well, I mean, it’s absolutely true. In the great anthology of embarrassing former articles that people always drag up ... you will find I have taken a sort of very libertarian stance on obesity.”

He went on to add that the UK is “significantly fatter” than most other countries in Europe, putting pressure on the NHS. But the PM will also have to address the financial problems facing the nation’s leisure centres and public swimming pools if he is to take seriously the fight against obesity.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Jane Nickerson, the chief executive of Swim England, said that even before the pandemic struck around 40 per cent of the country’s ageing pool stock was facing closure by the end of the decade and claimed many local facilities have had no support at all over the last three months. Estimates have also suggested as many as 1,300 public leisure facilities could disappear by the end of 2020.

“We know every single pool returns around £7.2m in community benefits,” she said. “In social cohesion, crime prevention, education attainment and health benefits. So a little bit of support now from the government will have its payback within months.”