‘They must not eat so much’: Tory peer calls for new anti-obesity strategy to combat ‘grossly overweight’ people

Former UK minister Lord Robathan has called on the government to implement a new anti-obesity strategy that tells “grossly overweight” people that “they must not eat so much,” putting more focus on personal responsibility.

Speaking in the House of Lords on Thursday, Robathan criticised the government’s current anti-obesity strategy, launched only last year, for “not actually working” as official figures show 28% of adults in England are obese.

“I'm glad the government recognises the huge problem this is and the dangers that being overweight bring,” the Tory peer said, urging the Johnson administration to “revert to the situation when I was young, when it was not socially acceptable to be grossly overweight, and push individual responsibility.”

The government's policy should tell people they must not eat so much.

According to Public Health England, more than 40% of adults in England gained weight during the pandemic, with the number of obese people in the country doubling from the 15% recorded in the early 1990s.

The government’s health minister in the House of Lords, Lord Kamall, responded to the proposed change to the anti-obesity strategy by warning individuals should be careful about the “unintended consequences” of proposals put forward to tackle unhealthy eating. However, he agreed the health department would consider the anti-obesity policy, discussing further details with the Lords when they are available.

As decisions over health policy are a devolved matter, meaning regional governments in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales decide their own country’s approach, the anti-obesity strategy announced by the UK government in July 2020 applies only across England. However, the regional parliaments have been encouraged by the UK government to adopt similar proposals. 

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