Cautiously welcoming the proposed ban on junk food to children, Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Hugo Swire said:
"We welcome any moves to tackle the growing problem of obesity amongst children, but an ad ban alone will not result in healthy kids.
"This move must be more than gesture politics, we need to adopt a holistic approach across the whole of government, including a commitment to competitive sports in schools, a greater emphasis on cooking and domestic sciences in schools, and the promotion of healthy lifestyles in the classroom and the dinner queue.
"Simply placing restrictions on food advertising alone will not deliver the changes in lifestyle and diet necessary. It is also important for parents to take responsibility for the health of their children."
He added: "We must examine closely the impact on Britain's children's television production industry, which will be sorely affected by this proposal. It would be a disaster if this ban lead to the demise of British made children's programmes, replaced with cheaply made American substitutes, many of which already contain product placement.
"If channels such as ITV now decide it is financially unviable to keep children's programming or to use US shows, we might replace idle bodies with idle minds."
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