New North East Mayor could ban some junk food adverts.

The North East Mayoral Hustings at Newcastle University. Candidates L-R Guy Renner-Thompson, Jamie Driscoll, Andrew Gray, Paul Donaghy, Aidan King and Kim McGuinness
Author: Daniel Holland, LDRSPublished 30th Apr 2024

Junk food adverts could be banned on public transport by the new North East mayor, after celebrity chef Jamie Oliver urged the election candidates to act.

The TV cook and food campaigner issued a challenge on social media for the six hopefuls bidding for the mayoral job to “put child health first”, saying that junk food marketing “makes children want it more, pester their parents for it more, and ultimately consume more unhealthy food”.

Whoever wins the historic mayoral election this week will have major influence over the region’s transport network – with the mayor holding the power to bring bus services under public control and Tyne and Wear Metro operator Nexus also being brought under the new North East Mayoral Combined Authority (NEMCA).

Independent candidate Jamie Driscoll, who is the sitting North of Tyne mayor, was first to commit to the junk food ad ban, which Mr Oliver called the “big, bold action we desperately need to turn the tide on our child health statistics”.

A total of 11% of reception-age children and 26% of those in year six in the North East are classed as obese, according to a recent Newcastle City Council report.

Labour’s Kim McGuinness, who was given a very narrow advantage over Mr Driscoll in the mayoral race according to a poll published last weekend, has also backed the campaign.

Such a ban is already in force on tubes and buses in London.

But Tory candidate Guy Renner-Thompson has spoken out against the idea, while Lib Dem Aidan King branded it “just another example of the nanny state trying to tell people what they should and shouldn’t be doing with their own lives”.

Announcing his pledge to ban junk food adverts on public transport, Mr Driscoll said: “We need to promote the welfare of our next generation. Because the kids who are struggling to learn today, will not be the ones to access the good jobs of tomorrow.”

He added: “Five years ago London mayor Sadiq Khan banned junk food advertising across London’s TFL. It has prevented almost 100,000 obesity cases, saved the NHS over £200 million, and it didn’t negatively affect advertising revenue.”

Ms McGuinness told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that she would “absolutely back this campaign and as mayor will ban the advertising of junk food on public transport”.

She claimed to have “set the highest bar of any candidate on child poverty and my administration will be by far the most ambitious for children”, while the Green Party’s Andrew Gray also indicated that he would be supportive of the advertising ban.

But Mr Renner-Thompson, who is a councillor in Northumberland, hit back by arguing: “The last thing people in the North East need is wealthy men called Jamie telling them how to live their lives.

“Child obesity is a problem in the region. Rather than banning things, we need to be educating young families on nutrition and healthy lives through our ‘Family Hubs’ which guide parents through the maize of raising children.”

Dr King, a physician at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary, added: “This is just another example of the nanny state trying to tell people what they should and shouldn’t be doing with their own lives. The mayor needs to be focussing on the big issues impacting our region, not performative policies which have been shown to not to work.

“I’m sure residents from across the North East will agree with me that we don’t need a TV chef from London telling North East families how to run their own lives.”

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