Truss plan to axe sugar tax runs into legal and parliamentary hitches
Liz Truss has run into difficulties in her desire to scrap the sugar tax, amid a growing backlash against the plan, which health experts have branded “dangerous” and “nonsensical”.
Whitehall sources say there is “a question mark” over how the prime minister can overcome a number of legal and parliamentary procedural obstacles to abandoning the soft drinks industry levy.
It is unclear what mechanism Truss could use to repeal the sugar tax, which was introduced in 2018 as a result of its inclusion in the Finance Act 2017.
She is an ardent critic of state intervention to promote healthier lifestyles and has previously said that “taxes on treats hit those on the lowest incomes” and that government should not tell people what to eat.
Officials have made Truss and Thérèse Coffey, the health secretary, aware of the challenges involved in ditching the levy, which won wide support among MPs.
The Guardian revealed last week the government was undertaking an unpublicised review of obesity strategy in England that was expected to lead to policies such as bans on junk food adverts on TV before 9pm and “buy one get one free” offers being jettisoned.
Senior doctors and health campaigners voiced deep unease about the plan. Senior officials in the government’s Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), in effect the public health section of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), are appalled at the planned bonfire of restrictions.
There is consternation that Truss is ready to ditch the sugar tax. It raises £300m a year for the Treasury and has led to a cut of up to 30% in the sugar content of many soft drinks, which have been linked to tooth decay, obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
In the year after the levy came
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