Portman Group hits back at Labour's public health proposals

By Gemma McKenna

Published: 15 January, 2015

The Portman Group has hit back at proposals from Labour on public health, which criticise voluntary industry and government partnerships.

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham has today made a speech calling for greater regulation on public health issues - he says there should be maximum amounts of fat, salt and sugar in products aimed at children. He also launches an attack on high strength, cheap alcohol, saying tougher sanctions are needed and looking at putting restrictions on price and bottle size.

Labour's public health white paper also calls for mandatory pregnancy labelling - which industry has already delivered 90% voluntarily - and will be looking at other top-down regulations, eschewing the voluntary approach.

But Portman Group chief executive Henry Ashworth said partnerships with the drinks industry had so far delivered strong results.

"We must move on from the old politics of one-size-fits-all policies which antagonise voters and responsible businesses and do nothing to redress the imbalance of health harms across the country.

"Labour need to make a big comprehensive offer to work together with business, locally and nationally, to achieve things further and faster than through nanny state intervention."

Responding to Labour's remarks on how to drive down underage drinking, Ashworth said: "The number of children drinking in this country is declining at an extraordinary rate - down 34% in the last decade. Life skills education, strict enforcement on underage sales and robust ID schemes are essential - all of which are fully supported, funded and championed by the drinks industry.

"As a country we're making excellent progress and the youngest generation is leading the way. We must build on this positive change by working in partnership, not by imposing costly red tape."

Ashworth also highlighted the progress the drinks industry has already made in partnership with government, in taking a billion units of alcohol out of the market, limiting the number of units of alcohol in single serve cans and voluntarily labelling 80% of products with important health information, and over 90% with a warning about drinking when pregnant.

"Labour are proposing to spend taxpayers money and valuable government time legislating for something industry are already doing voluntarily," he said.

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