A former Labour shadow health minister has slammed the government’s plans for a sugar levy, claiming it would fail to tackle 70% of sugar intake.
Luciana Berger, speaking at a Labour Conference fringe event on obesity this week, said there were loopholes in the levy that meant it failed to tackle added sugar in yoghurt and cordial drinks.
Berger, who has previously spoken out against a sugar tax because of the impact it would have on the poorest consumers, said she was not against it in principle but claimed that it was insufficient to tackle the problem.
She accused the government’s Childhood Obesity Plan of being a “laissez-faire” approach to obesity, calling the crisis the public health “trial of our times”. The Royal Society for Public Health’s projection that by 2050 half of all adults would be obese was a “wake-up call” to urgently address the problem, she said.
British Soft Drinks Association director general Gavin Partington told the event the sugar levy was flawed because it neglected other key sources of sugar intake.
Challenged on the experience of Mexico, where a 10% sugar tax lead to a 12% reduction in sugar sales, Partington insisted there was “no evidence” it had made an impact on levels of obesity and sales there, and that soft drink sales in Mexico were climbing again.
He said the soft drinks tax was “an easy campaigning point” and “an excuse for lack of action in other areas”.
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