Labour nannies reveal plan to ban ads for ‘unhealthy’ food in X Factor and BGT ‘to fight obesity’

Labour set itself on a collision course with ITV last night by vowing to ban junk food ads during TV shows Britain’s Got Talent and X-Factor.

Shadow Health Secretary Jon Ashworth pledged to outlaw the ads before 9pm as part of a new war on childhood obesity.

He said that if elected Labour would deliver a new strategy with 100 days aimed at making Britain the “healthiest country in the world to grow up in”.

Part of this would include banning adverts “promoting unhealthy food” during prime-time family shows such as X-Factor or Hollyoaks.

Labour said such a ban would reduce children’s viewing of junk food ads by 82 per cent. Mr Ashworth said: “The scandal of child ill-health is a long-standing, growing and urgent challenge.

“When it comes to our children we should be ambitious.”

Theresa May ruled out such a ban when the Government unveiled its own obesity strategy last summer.

The food industry has already agreed a ban on junk food ads in children’s shows on any platform, including social media.

But health campaigners claim millions of kids watch prime-time family shows which aren’t covered by the ban.

Industry figures counter that to be effective any prime-time ban would also have to include the internet as well as TV.

In a statement yesterday ITV insisted: “The UK has one of the strictest regulatory regimes in the world for advertising food high in fat, salt or sugar.

“And there is already a complete ban on advertising these products in children’s television and programmes likely to appeal to children.”

Tory Public Health Minister Nicola Blackwood last night insisted the Government’s programme – including the Sugar Tax – was the “most ambitious in the world”.