Labour party wants to ban junk food ads

Labour party plans to ban junk food adverts from TV shows playing before 21:00 with the goal to tackle childhood obesity.

This comes during the election campaign in their election manifesto. According to Labour, this ban on pre-watershed junk food adverts will reduce children watching these promotions by 82%.

This strategy on child health has the intention of reducing the number of overweight young people and cut down the annual cost to the NHS of obesity.

The party plans to create a £250 million fund for this issue by cutting down the amount the NHS spends on management consultants.

Their intention is to make British children healthier. Labour’s shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth told the BBC he does not mean parents have to stop going to McDonald's. According to the BBC, he said: "We are asking people to think about the impact and asking the advertising industry to recognise by putting their messages into things like Britain's Good Talent all the time, it is having an effect on children saying they want to eat and drink this stuff."

Mother of two, Greta Cortopassi believes that the problem is not on the TV adverts. “Is not going to change anything if there are less junk food adverts, it is about education,” she said. Cortopassi, 37, is not happy that there is so many fast food and chicken shops close to schools and colleges, the fact that junk food is easily accessible for her children worries her. “It is amazing how cheap is this type of food, even with one pound the kids can have chicken and chips, there is no way of controlling them when they are by themselves,” she said.

In the other side, the Conservative plan to tackle childhood obesity, which was presented last August, has been criticised for being too “weak”, according to the BBC.

However, Tory’s public health spokesman said that Britain has one of the strictest TV advertising regimes.

Big fast-food chains like McDonald's, use animated films and characters in their TV ads to try to appeal to kids. Nevertheless, they also offer “healthier” options like fruit bags on the happy meal with chicken nuggets. Here is an example:

One example of how fast food shops are accessible is by looking at Holloway Road itself, there are numerous places. Making junk food very accessible for young people who study in this area.