Voices: Jeremy Hunt, Liz Truss, Therese Coffey – and the battle for our children

As Jeremy Hunt unpacks his boxes as our new chancellor, my thoughts have turned to what’s next for child obesity and whether there might be a glimmer of hope with Hunt in charge of the red box.

There needs to be, because we have a child obesity crisis – and it’s a big one. More than one in four children aged 4 to 5 years and four in 10 aged 10 to 11 years are overweight or obese (27.7 per cent and 40.9 per cent respectively). And children living in deprived areas are more than twice as likely to be obese.

To make change happen, please sign the petition by clicking here

In May of this year, former prime minister Boris Johnson made a major U-turn on obesity policy. He announced a delay to the ban on buy one get one free (BOGOF) supermarket deals, and the pre-9pm TV advertising watershed. His reason for doing so? The cost of living crisis. The decision drew harsh criticism from health and food campaigners, and for good reason.

Research by the Money and Pensions Service (a body funded by the government) showed how BOGOF offers make people spend more, not less. The cost of living argument is a red herring. Banning BOGOF would have helped change the system – the system that’s rigged to make our children fatter and compromise their future health.

Here’s where it gets interesting. In May, Jeremy Hunt, as chair of the health select committee told LBC: “The decision to delay was wrong … it’s a great shame that the government has done this. There is a lot of evidence that people buy more food than they need, eat more unhealthily and spend more.”

But Truss? Truss’s position on the matter is quite clear. On the leadership trail in August, she said this to the Daily Mail: “Talking about whether or not somebody should buy a two-for-one offer? No. There is definitely enough of that ... [People] don’t want the government telling them what to eat.”

And what of Therese Coffey, the health minister? So far, she’s scrapped the upcoming health disparities white paper covering social determinants of obesity, and told The Guardian that she’s got no time for “nanny state stuff”.

So who will win the battle to protect our children’s health? It was the Treasury that recently ordered a review of our existing obesity prevention policies – both the BOGOF deals and also the sugar tax, an initiative that has already contributed to people buying and consuming less sugar from soft drinks. As chancellor, this report will fall into the hands of Hunt. Will he stay true to his word and put the needs of our children before industry?

It’s also what children want to happen. The youth-led campaigning organisation Bite Back 2030 wrote to the prime minister this year to ask the government not to reverse the obesity measures:

“It should be easy for young people to be healthy, it isn’t. Our world is flooded with junk food, and billions are spent marketing and advertising it to us. This devastating power imbalance between corporations and consumers will continue if no one holds companies to account for the products and practices that damage our health.”

To keep up to speed with all the latest opinions and comment, sign up to our free weekly Voices Dispatches newsletter by clicking here

What do I want to happen? Firstly, I want us to stop talking about obesity prevention as “nanny state policy”. We need to think about the food system as a whole. We can’t keep telling people that it’s their individual responsibility to manage their weight, while the systems and structures are not in place to support them.

We can’t keep telling people it’s up to them to decide what to eat when a healthy basket of food costs three times more than one filled with junk food. We need to protect our children and we need policy to do that. The BOGOF measures and the watershed are a good start, but there’s more we can and must do now to give our children a better future.

So I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Jeremy Hunt has arrived at No 11 prepared for a fight – because he may well have one on his hands.

Dayna Brackley is a food policy consultant at Bremner Consulting and a masters student at the Centre for Food Policy at City University, London