UK leadership candidate Truss: junk food taxes “are over”

The frontrunner to become British prime minister, Liz Truss, said she would scrap plans to restrict multi-buy deals on food and drink high in fat, salt, or sugar and would not impose any new levies on unhealthy food. Britain already taxes sugar in soft drinks, and in May delayed until October next year rules banning deals such as “buy one get one free” on food and drinks high in fat, salt, or sugar due to the cost-of-living crisis.

“Those taxes are over,” Truss said in an interview with the Daily Mail. “Talking about whether or not somebody should buy a two-for-one offer? No. There is definitely enough of that.” Truss said Britons wanted the government to focus on things like delivering good transport links, communications infrastructure, and cutting National Health Service waiting lists.

“They don’t want the government telling them what to eat,” she said. The ban was also due to include restrictions on free refills for soft drinks in restaurants. Limits on the location of unhealthy foods in shops are still due to go ahead in October.

Opinion polls of Conservative Party members, who will elect their new leader and the country’s next prime minister, show Truss is leading her rival former finance minister Rishi Sunak ahead of a result due on Sept. 5. The chairman of Britain’s biggest supermarket group Tesco, John Allan, in June criticized Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government for not being consistent on policy, including over anti-obesity measures.

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