Tackling Obesity

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Thursday 12th November 2026 Commons Chamber

[Layla Moran]

I am extremely grateful to my hon. Friend for his question. The rising rates of obesity among reception-age children should give us real pause for thought. If we ever wanted proof that obesity is not an individual failing, it is the fact that it seems to be most acute among that population. There is no silver bullet—that is the trap we fall into—despite the lobbying not to do this or that, whether that is about the food industry or advertising. It will never be one thing. It will be a suite of measures that we put around children: stopping fast food joints being on their walk to school; supporting their families with sustained funding, so that they can have healthy food at home; and bans on advertising, which we know works on children, because otherwise, why would the companies do it?

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

Many moons ago, in 2009, long before I had the pleasure of meeting you, Madam Deputy Speaker, or anybody in this Chamber, I used to be 17 stone. I was a big fat pudding—I am calling myself that. I was eating Chinese food five nights a week with two bottles of Coca-Cola. It was the wrong recipe, with lots of stress. When I became a type 2 diabetic, I realised I had to lose weight. I lost 4 stone, and I have kept it off. I tell that story because sometimes we do not know things are happening until the doctor tells us.

I think of the children in school. I am very fortunate to have six grandchildren. The wee ones especially—the six-year-old and the four-year-old—eat their fruit and veg every day, all day, which is really good. My question is, does the hon. Lady agree that if we want to change habits, we must engage and educate our young people about eating fruit and veg, and if they cannot have it at home, they need to have it at school, starting at primary level?

[Layla Moran]

All credit to the hon. Gentleman. As I said, I have faced a similar journey, and it is hard to keep the weight off, because once we have lived with it for a long while, our underlying endocrinology changes. People need to appreciate that if we allow young people to live with obesity, it affects their whole life. With any luck, we can avoid the point where they end up with diabetes, which can be reversible, as we know. He is completely right: this needs to happen in school, but it is not just about school. We need to recognise that when those children are at home, their families need help. We need to drive down the prices of healthy fruit and veg, and that needs a joined-up strategy with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. That is why we are calling for a cross-Cabinet Committee—because if any one Department tries to do this on its own, it will continue to fail.