As Shadow Food Minister, Daniel Zeichner, put it during a recent fringe event at Party Conference: “Labour just is more likely to intervene in markets”.
The ongoing cost-of-living crisis, and an eagerness to position Labour as the party of business, has meant that the Labour leadership has avoided making clear its intentions around intervention and has been fairly tight-lipped regarding intervention on unhealthy foods, despite calls from health campaigners to do more.
But as we look to the future of food policy, recent polling commissioned by Cavendish paints a clearer picture of how Labour might move in this space.
Key findings:
- Over half (52%) of Labour MPs would support greater intervention on high sugar products, compared to less than a fifth (18%) of Conservative MPs.
- 58% of the public would support either a tax or a ban on high sugar products.
- A third (33%) of MPs would support government intervention to reduce the consumption of high-sugar foods and drinks.
- 44% of Labour MPs would support greater intervention on fast food, compared to 18% of Conservative MPs.
Our polling – conducted by YouGov – found that a majority of Labour MPs (52%) would support greater Government intervention to reduce the nation’s consumption of high sugar food and drinks. Interestingly, this is even if the intervention increased costs for consumers.
By contrast, only 18% of Conservative MPs said they would support such measures.
This insight should help food retailers and manufacturers better understand what we might expect from Labour on HFSS and we can be pretty confident that a Labour Government would be tougher on unhealthy products than its Conservative predecessors. Like sugary food and drinks, Labour MPs were also much more supportive of greater intervention on fast food (44%), compared to Conservative MPs (18%).
The lack of progress from successive Conservative administrations in this space will leave Labour with a number of oven-ready policies that would be easy for them to introduce if elected to Government. In addition to the watershed ban on advertising, which Labour has already committed to, the banning of promotional offers on HFSS products as well as increasing reporting or labelling requirements for retailers could also be on the cards.
But the results of this polling also suggest an appetite amongst Labour MPs for introducing more stringent measures – such as an extension of the sugar tax – once cost-of-living pressures on households begin to subside and the party are no longer fighting an election.
Ultimately, there’s good reason to believe that a Labour Government would be significantly more amenable to intervention on HFSS than its Conservative predecessors. With the Labour Party maintaining a strong lead in the polls, food retailers ought to prepare for the likelihood of a change in Government and, with it, a new attitude to intervention.
To discuss the future of food policy in more detail, the polling, or what it might mean for your organisation, email isobel.fitzsimons@cavendishconsulting.com
