‘Very little difference’ Boris Johnson shuts down Jamie Oliver in fierce obesity clapback

Boris Johnson slams Jamie Oliver's criticism of obesity policy

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The Prime Minister was challenged to reverse his decision to avoid demonstrations outside of Number 10 as Jamie Oliver warned he would assemble parents and children to launch what he dubbed a “Eton Mess protest.” Boris Johnson however dismissed Mr Oliver’s threats and insisted that while tackling obesity remains important, implementing new taxes on bulk food could affect families struggling with the cost of living crisis. Speaking from Wales, Mr Johnson said: “We are very, very…we understand the vital importance of tackling obesity.

“It costs the NHS huge sums of money. People feel healthier and happier, and their quality of life is much, much better if they lose weight – speaking entirely personally.

“There’s a lot of things we need to focus on, including diet, eating less but there are some things at the moment we think would make very little difference to obesity.

“And they can affect people’s weekly outgoings, people’s budgets and, at this particular time, if people can save on their food bills with some offers, then I think we just need to be flexible whilst continuing to tackle obesity.”

Due to the lack of a U-turn, Jamie Oliver went on to present an Eton mess dessert opposite Number 10 Downing Street to protest the Government’s U-turn on its anti-obesity strategy.

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Mr Oliver praised supermarket Tesco for pledging to ban two-for-one deals on junk food from October 2022 – a policy the Government has postponed for a year – to cheers from around 100 supporters.

When asked whether his campaign is out of touch at a time when families are increasingly struggling to put food on the table, he told PA: “This whole strategy was designed by the Government and has been researched by the Government proves that this particular mechanic makes people spend more of their income and waste more.

“And actually if you look at what Tesco said today, they are going to continue on discounts (but on) healthier and sustainable (food).

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“They’ve set the tone and I’m sure others will follow.

“We want to put child health first, the strategy was looking world-class and now it doesn’t.

“It’s our job to put it all back together again and make sure that we can build a better future for our kids.”

The Prime Minister also reiterated the UK must make sure it has a dependable energy supply to avoid future spikes in its cost.

Mr Johnson said: “You’ve got to make sure that we don’t run into this kind of problem again, and it was the short-termism of previous Labour Governments that meant we didn’t have a dependable energy supply.

“I care deeply about the crunch now, but what we have to avoid, also, is future crunches and future spikes in the cost of energy.

“It is insane that this country is piping in electricity from the continent, from France.

“Crazy, when we’ve got hydrocarbons of our own, that we’re continuing to take them from (Vladimir) Putin’s Russia.”

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