Academic charged with assessing Sugar Tax ‘told by God to push for it’
Furious campaigners hit out last night over a blog where Professor Mike Rayner said the Almighty was 'calling me to work towards the introduction of soft drink taxes in this country'
A TOP academic hired by the Government to judge the success of the Sugar Tax claims GOD asked him to push for the soft drinks levy.
Furious campaigners hit out last night over a blog where Professor Rev. Mike Rayner said the Almighty was “calling me to work towards the introduction of soft drink taxes in this country”.
He has also previously published papers claiming a levy pushing up the price of popular fizz will cut obesity.
Drink bosses are mulling an official complaint, claiming the blog by the Professor in 2012 showed there is no chance of a fair and independent assessment of the tax.
Professor Rayner is one of a nine-strong team hired by the Department of Health last year to study its impact.
The soft drinks levy takes effect on April 6 – with predictions the Treasury’s tax will push up the price of a litre of bottle of fizzy drinks by 24p.
Chris Snowdon of the Institute of Economic Affairs said: “Given that he believes that the sugar levy has the support of the Almighty, and that he has previously published research which predicts that taxing soft drinks will reduce the obesity rate, it is surely inappropriate for him to be given the job of evaluating its effects.
“Even if we leave aside Reverend Rayner’s religious beliefs, it cannot be right for people who have advocated for the levy to be given the job of marking their own homework.”
The National Institute for Health Research commissioned the £1.5 million study in September last year.
It’s led by Professor Martin White at the University of Cambridge.
Professor Rayner works at the Nuffield Department of Population Health at the University of Oxford.
In his blog about a tax, he said: “In all of this I see a sacred dimension. You may not believe that I have heard God aright but I think God is calling me to work towards the introduction of soft-drink taxes in this country.
“I am looking forward to the day when General Synod debates the ethical issues surrounding this type of tax rather than some of the other issues that august body seems obsessed by.”
He later modified the blog to remove the direct reference to God because it was “being used by the food industry” to try and delay the tax.
But he pointed out: “I removed these words not because I was embarrassed by them or because I didn’t believe in them anymore.”
Coca Cola slam Sugar Tax and say it will push up the price of drinks by 10p
COCA COLA last night slammed the Treasury’s Sugar Tax as “unnecessary” as it said the levy could push up the price of a can of Coke by 10p.
The US soft drinks giant confirmed it had decided not to change the recipe of classic Coca Cola because “people who drink it tell us not to”.
This means that from April 6, the price of a 330ml can could go up by 10p – 8p plus 2p VAT - as it’s “subject to the Government’s new tax”.
An ultimate decision on the retail price will be down to high street chains.
The Government’s levy puts 18p on a litre of drink with between 5-8g of added sugar and 24p on a litre of fizz with more than 8g.
A spokesman for Coca Cola said: “We’ve reformulated 34 drinks to reduce their sugar content since 2005 and this is helping make a difference.
“There is plenty of evidence that shows the sugar people are getting from soft drinks has declined significantly over the last decade and at the same time obesity rates have risen.”
“That’s why we think the soft drinks tax is unnecessary and won’t work to reduce obesity rates. It will also hit shoppers in the pocket.”
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Gavin Partington of the British Soft Drinks Association called it a “scandal”.
He told The Sun: “The soft drinks tax was designed to curb obesity so it’s right that in time we should judge whether it’s had that effect.
“But to hand taxpayers’ cash to those who campaigned for the tax and ask them to provide an independent assessment of its impact is a scandal.”
Approached yesterday Professor Rayner told The Sun the panel would evaluate the tax on its merits. He said: “We can always change our minds.
“The things I said 10 years or so ago are things I said 10 years ago.”