Sugar tax opposed by majority of Conservative MPs, according to poll
Four out of five Conservative MPs do not support the idea of a sugar tax, new polling by Dods has revealed.
Members across the House of Commons are are evenly split about the idea of a ‘sugar tax’, but Tories overwhelmingly oppose it, according to the polling.
However a levy won drinks which had more than 5g of sugar per 100ml, subject to certain exemptions, was announced yesterday by George Osborne in his 2016 budget speech.
The survey of 96 MPs, conducted last week by Dods Polling, found that 41 supported a ‘sugar tax’, 41 opposed it and 14 did not know.
But 83 per cent of the 36 Conservative respondents rejected it, compared to just 6 per cent in favour.
Labour MPs weighed in behind the measure, with 74 per cent in favour and 12 per cent against.
The eight Liberal Democrat MPs were split six to two in favour of the sugar tax.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn welcomed Mr Osborne’s announcement yesterday, which will form part of the Government’s perennially delayed childhood obesity strategy.
In his Budget speech, Mr Osborne said: "I am not prepared to look back at my time here in this Parliament, doing this job and say to my children’s generation: I’m sorry. We knew there was a problem with sugary drinks. We knew it caused disease. But we ducked the difficult decisions and we did nothing.
“So today I can announce that we will introduce a new sugar levy on the soft drinks industry."
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