Former Tory health ministers condemn Boris Johnson’s junk food ‘U-turn’

msn.com:

Boris Johnson’s U-turn on junk food, with one denouncing the plans as “unConservative”. Boris Johnson (PA)The cost of obesity-related illnesses places a huge financial burden on taxpayers and the NHS, Lord Bethell said.

The latest move was not “aligned with the kind of Conservative principles that I’m familiar with”, he added. Another former Conservative health minister Steve Brine told The Independent the decision was “extremely short-sighted” and would cost money as well as the “health and wellbeing of the poorest in society”.

The government last week U-turned on plans to restrict junk food promotions inside supermarkets. Both proposed ban on buy-one-get-one-free (bogof) deals on unhealthy food and a 9pm watershed for television adverts have been delayed for a year.

Mr Johnson was elected Conservative leader with a platform to resist moves he considered part of a “nanny state” agenda. But he changed his mind after he was hospitalised with Covid in 2020.