‘How Labour can deliver Britain a food system that works for everyone’ 

Across Bishop Auckland, I meet families working hard to make ends meet and trying to give their children the healthiest start in life. Yet for too many people, eating well has become harder, not easier. Healthier food now costs nearly twice as much per calorie as less healthy food, and, according to the Food Foundation’s Broken Plate 2026 report, that gap is widening.

Labour came to power promising to make this country fairer. Fixing our food system is one of the most direct ways we can do that.

The consequences of inaction are impossible to ignore. Nearly two-thirds of adults in England are overweight or living with obesity. One in three children leaves primary school overweight or obese. Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and diet-related cancers are placing growing pressure on families, communities, and our NHS costing the health service around £12 billion a year in obesity-related treatment alone, and the broader economy a further £31 billion in lost productivity. These are not inevitable costs. They are the price of a food system we have the power to change.

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This is not simply a matter of personal responsibility. People can only make healthy choices when those choices are available, affordable, and accessible. Our food environment has been shaped for decades in ways that make unhealthy options the easiest and cheapest. The communities paying the highest price are those already facing the greatest economic challenges. Healthy life expectancy is now at its lowest level since records began, with a nearly 20-year gap between the least and most deprived areas. The North East has the lowest healthy life expectancy of any region, and a child born in the most deprived parts of England, like Blackpool and Hartlepool, can expect just 51 years of good health. In the most affluent areas, that figure is over 70. Closing that gap is exactly the kind of mission this Labour government was elected to pursue.

The problem is systemic. Food insecurity is not falling, it is rising again. Food bank use has grown from 1.1 million people in 2015 to 2.6 million today. Families with children in the lowest income bracket would need to spend 85% of their disposable income to afford the government’s own Eatwell Guide. We are not talking about poor choices. We are talking about a system that has made good choices impossible for millions of people. Labour has both the mandate and the tools to reshape it.

One of the most powerful tools available is public procurement. Every day, schools, hospitals, care homes, and other public institutions serve millions of meals. Yet in the most deprived areas, fast-food outlets make up more than one in three places to buy food, and children in those same areas are nearly twice as likely to develop obesity as those in the least deprived neighbourhoods. 

Every school meal, every hospital dinner, every care home lunch is a decision the government can make differently, a moment to close the gap rather than widen it. By requiring all publicly funded food to meet the nutritional standards we already set for school meals, and by using procurement to create reliable markets for British producers of healthy food, we can turn the public pound into a public health intervention. No new legislation required.

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There is a broader policy agenda Labour is well placed to lead. Fewer than one in ten teenagers eat their five-a-day. Ninety-five per cent consume more free sugar than the government recommends. 

I am happy to back calls – laid out in the Broken Plate report – for a new levy on unhealthy food to incentivise manufacturers to reformulate. We know this works, because the Soft Drinks Industry Levy cut sugar in soft drinks by 46% and this has raised over £2.2 billion since 2018. 

There should also be mandatory reporting of healthy sales by large businesses, and stronger planning powers to stop the proliferation of fast-food outlets near schools. 

Healthy Start should be extended to all families on universal credit – a scheme my own children benefited from when they were young, as I was worked for minimum wage as a labourer while studying for my degree, so I know first hand what it means to parents to be able to afford fresh fruit and vegetables for our children. 

Each of these actions is achievable within this parliament. Together, they would mark a genuine shift in how this country thinks about food and health.

The environmental opportunity is just as significant. Food system emissions have fallen just 22% since 2008, compared to a 41% drop across the rest of the UK economy. An estimated 204km² — an area larger than Glasgow — was deforested in 2023 to produce food linked to the UK economy. A joined-up food strategy, with measurable goals and proper cross-departmental accountability, would allow Labour to lead on this in a way no previous government has managed.

I see the impact of poor health every week in Bishop Auckland. I also see the determination of local communities, producers, schools, and health professionals who are already working to build something better. They are not waiting for permission. But they do need government to move in the same direction.

The opportunity is there. Labour should take it.

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