LABOUR is today pledging to spend £27 million on vouchers for milk, fruit and vegetables to boost the health of children from the poorest families.

This would be equivalent to an extra 42.4m pints of milk, 33m apples, 6.5m kilos of carrots and 4.3m kilos of peas.

A new “Future Generations Wellbeing Act” for England would be part of Labour’s commitment to tackle widening health inequalities after the Tory government cut spending on “healthy start” vouchers for food and vitamins by £37m — over a quarter.

Simultaneously, since 2012-13, the number of people eligible for such vouchers fell by 20 per cent in four years.

Labour argues that the vouchers are “crucial” to helping children in lower-income families — who are at greater risk of obesity — have a healthier diet.

One in five children is obese or overweight by the time they start primary school. This rises to one in three by the time they leave.

10-year old Maisie Mansfield from Cambridgeshire backed the plans. She told the Star: “Sounds cool. It will encourage kids to eat healthy.”

Shadow health and social care secretary Jonathan Ashworth will say: “Today a baby girl born in Liverpool can expect to live 13 fewer years in good health than a baby girl born in Richmond. It’s an injustice we cannot ignore.
 
“After nine years of Tory austerity advances in life expectancy have ground to halt, and have even gone backwards in some of the poorest areas. Shamefully, infant mortality rates — children dying before their first birthday — have risen three years in a row for the first time since the second world war.
 
“Rates of premature deaths — including deaths linked to heart disease, lung cancers and COPD — are two times higher in the most deprived areas of England compared to the most affluent. Children and adults living in the poverty are up to three times more likely to develop mental health problems compared to those living in the highest income brackets.
 
“Poverty and deprivation mean people get ill quicker and die sooner. As socialists we should never settle for this, as health secretary I won’t.”

It would also place a new duty on local health services to reduce health inequalities, while ensuring public health services are fully funded and budgets ringfenced.