The action plan includes the transformation of NHS dentistry, implementing the 9pm watershed for junk food advertising on television and a free breakfast club in every primary school so every child is able to start the day with a healthy breakfast.
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “We need to restore our sense of what’s possible. That the future for our children can be the better, more prosperous and healthier. We need a bold new ambition: for this to be the healthiest generation of children ever.
“A core mission of the next Labour government is to get the NHS back on its feet after 14 years of neglect under the Tories. By doing that, the health service will be able reverse the plummeting health outcomes our children suffer from.”
Labour’s Child Health Action Plan:
- Cut waiting lists for children
- End the crisis in child mental health
- Transform NHS dentistry
- Crackdown on smoking and vaping
- Ban junk food advertising to children
- Introduce breakfast clubs for all primary schoolchildren
- Protect children from the growth of infectious diseases
Barbara Crowther, Children's Food campaign manager, added: "We welcome that Keir Starmer has said that these are just the 'first steps' that Labour will take.
“We believe that they also need to create a long-term vision for healthy school food for all, look at advertising on our streets not just on TV or online, and also explore how they could incentivise the food and drink industry more purposefully to shift the recipes and menus of the food and drink in shops, cafes and takeaways towards tasty, nutritious and sustainably produced options. That would certainly build a more prosperous, healthy future for our children."