Our Open Letter to The Prime Minister

We are very worried about reports that the new Government is reviewing key policies designed to protect children's health. Critical measures are at risk, including plans to stop food companies from bombarding us with advertisements designed to give junk food a starring role in our minds.

50 of us have written to the Prime Minister imploring her to listen to young people and preserve these policies that are so critical to our health. Read and share our open letter below:

Dear Prime Minister,

We understand your Government is undertaking a review into your ‘obesity strategy’ — including key policies specifically designed to protect and improve children’s health. 

The young people of Bite Back have spent years sharing stories from teens around the country that show why these policies are urgently needed. 

And we do that because right now, one in three children, and 63% of the adult population are already suffering or are at risk of suffering diet related ill health. In light of that statistic, we can not understand why you’re considering disregarding the evidence and scrapping these policies based on a rushed review that didn’t consult young people at all. 

The bottom line is this — it should be easy for young people to be healthy, it isn’t. Our world is flooded with junk food, and billions are spent marketing and advertising it to us. This devastating power imbalance between corporates and consumers will continue if no one holds companies to account for the products and practices that damage our health. 

How can you say scrapping these policies will help with the cost of living crisis? Make no mistake; junk food marketing uses proven, clever marketing tactics that are successful in doing exactly what they are designed to do: entice us to spend more when we can least afford it. Scrapping these policies won’t save anyone money.

Instead it will ensure junk food continues to play a starring role in children’s minds and allow companies to continue to dedicate themselves to making excessive profits whilst we and our friends face a future of type-2 diabetes, tooth decay, lower school achievement, mental health problems and more.

Please honour the plans to protect our health and keep these critical policies.

Sincerely,

The young people of Bite Back 2030

Full list of signatories:

Jayda, 16, London

Destiny, 18, London

Gavriella, 15, London

Clemmie, 16, London

Oli, 15, London

Becky, 18, London

Lily, 17, London

Suganja, 18, London

Zainab, 15, London

Anica, 17, London

Comfort, 18, London

Mia, 16, London

Alice, 17, London

Yumna, 17, Birmingham

Emily, 16, Birmingham

Ileen, 17, Birmingham

Laura, 16, Birmingham

Harman, 16, Birmingham

Amy, 16, Birmingham

Ruby, 15, Liverpool

Amelia, 14, Leeds

Mahnaz, 14, Leeds

Fayiza, 16, Sheffield

Hania, 16, Sheffield

Lisa, 16, Sheffield

Pluto, 15, Sheffield

Rizwan, 14, Manchester

Imogen, 15, Manchester

Bilal, 14, Manchester

Lucy, 15, Manchester

Farid, 14, Manchester

Erin, 16, Manchester

Alice, 14, Liverpool 

Annabelle, 18, London

Victor, 15, London

Edward, 15, Leicester

Alex, 17, Harrogate 

Dev, 17, Leicester 

Emmanuel, 17, Leeds

Georg, 17, Winchester

Abhishek, 15, Leicester

Fariha, 17, London

Sam, 16, Isle of Wight

Amy, 16, Surrey

Luke, 17, Newcastle 

Molly B, 17, York

Molly L, 15, Newbury

An, 15, London

Maryrose, 17, London

Rowan, 15, Carlisle