News

The Prime Minister who appeared to be warming to the idea of a sugar tax of up to 20% has now rejected the idea in favour of forcing companies to reformulate their products to reduce sugar content, with the threat of a future tax looming over them, according to the Financial Times.

The news comes one week after Jeremy Hunt told the Andrew Marr Show that Cameron had not taken the sugar tax ‘off the table’.

Hunt said: "David Cameron has said that if it isn't a sugar tax then it needs to be something equally robust, but he has not taken a sugar tax off the table.

"Partly it's what food manufacturers do and that's why you have discussion about taxes on drinks. It's also what the retailers do, it's what schools do, it's what parents do."

The sugar tax has long been championed by Jamie Oliver, who urged Cameron to introduce the levy last year and introduced his own voluntary tax on sugar drinks in his restaurants.

Public Health England also supported the introduction of a levy in their long-delayed report on childhood obesity as part of a number of measures to tackle the crisis.

City Hall and NHS England are amongst other high profile organisations to introduce a tax on high sugar drinks in their on-site cafés and restaurants.

Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, said: “We will be consulting on introducing an NHS sugar tax on various beverages and other sugar-added foods across the NHS which would be enforced over time as contracts for food catering and the shops that are in the foyers of hospitals come up for renewal over the next three to five years over a rolling basis.”

The food and drink industry may breathe a sigh of relief at the news which has strongly opposed the introduction. Industry giants such as Coca Cola and Kellogg's have however agreed to launch their own voluntary cut in sugar content to their products in a bid to avoid further Government intervention.

The Government is expected to release its ‘obesity strategy’ at the end of this month.