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    'Half of MPs' are taking weight-loss jabs, Wes Streeting tells LBC
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    ‘Half of MPs’ are taking weight-loss jabs, Wes Streeting tells LBC

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    35 Comments

    2. Haemophilia_Type_A on

      >He said: “Weight-loss jabs are the talk of the House of Commons tea rooms, half my colleagues are on them and are judging the rest of us saying ‘you lot should be on them’.

      I’m sure he’s riffing here but, er, that’s extremely unhealthy? If there’s even an element of truth here then that’s an awful work culture and it’s crazy that the Health Secretary (and someone who is known to wield a lot of influence within the government) would just casually say this like it’s jokes and laughs. This is how eating disorders happen.

      Very strange article and unbecoming as always from the Health Minister.

      edit: removed a couple of sentences upon suggestion.

    3. antipodal22 on

      I’m guessing they can also afford the treatments for the side affects as well then.

      Wasn’t this supposed to only be used for people on type 2 diabetes or is this just another form of substance abuse?

    4. CaptainKoreana on

      I wonder how many actually take ozempic.

      I also want to know if Lindsay Hoyle takes it himself.

    5. Dapper_Big_783 on

      Good idea these weight loss jabs. Wish they’d be prescribed for cars as well.

    6. YesIAmRightWing on

      if people need them they are decent.

      am not interested in shaming people for wanting to be thin if it lowers demand on the NHS overall.

    7. RaymondBumcheese on

      It would be interesting to see how many of them are claiming it on expenses. Bobby Jenrick seems like the kind of guy to mainline it and then claim it is for PR purposes or something. 

    8. DoneItDuncan on

      This is a bit weird right? Surely it can’t be good for otherwise healthy people to casually take medication for diabetes?

    9. paul_h on

      I’m on them – they’re magic. I bet the junk food industry is scaling up lobbying. Yea yes us know abou the pancreatitis – and I’ll book the blood test soon thru medichecks

    10. Peachy-SheRa on

      I wonder how our ‘excess’ economy will cope once the food and pharmaceuticals aren’t getting us fat and making us reliant on comorbidity meds – well aside the manufacturers of the weight loss injections who’re raking in billions..

    11. broketoliving on

      probably paid for on expenses, the average wage you couldn’t afford it

    12. AntysocialButterfly on

      Oh good, looking forward to the Westminster production of Requiem for a Dream…

    13. NonagoonInfinity on

      And this is coming from the bloke that thinks blockers are untested?

    15. alphabetown on

      He has such a sinister hard on for these to the point I wouldn’t be surprised if hes being bankrolled by a manufacturer. Borderline eugenicist talk about getting people back into work via them (despite weightloss being only one aspect of health) and now touting MPs taking them maybe/ maybe not as a joke. These are not the magic bullet he thinks they are.

    16. horagino on

      And these are the people running our country? The ones with no self-discipline to even keep their mouths shut and not stuff them full of food? No wonder this country’s become such a mess.

    17. i-am-a-passenger on

      People being on mounjaro is the worst kept secret in the country (for those that can afford it at least). It really is a revolutionary drug which will have wide reaching societal impacts, making obesity a thing of the past.

    18. limeflavoured on

      Presumably he’s exaggerating (certainly round here saying “half of them” as a phrase can be used like that). But regardless, the fact that he is willing to say that says something about how he views them. Whether he, as health secretary, should be doing that is a different issue.

    19. Spamgrenade on

      They cost £150 – £250 privately, that’s pretty cheap for a working fat loss drug. Not surprising fat people use it really.

    20. jodrellbank_pants on

      That makes me not trust them even more.
      Can’t make the effort to loose weight naturally.

    21. Mclarenrob2 on

      Are people really that lazy they can’t do exercise or eat proper food?

    22. fjtuk on

      2025 Wes Streeting, let’s use drugs to solve our obesity crisis

      2035 NHS swamped by previously rare forms of cancer and malnutrition as country is addicted to weight lossndrugs

    24. beIIe-and-sebastian on

      Anecdotally, the pharmacy attached to the supermarket I used to work in when I was a student takes in £12k a week in sales of weight loss drugs alone now. That’s over £600k a year in additional revenue and it’s a small pharmacy.

    25. Xironia on

      As someone that suffers from chronic pancreatitis for life, after I lost 15 stone over a year on diet/exercise I can only imagine the way of it that is about to hit these people.

    26. Loreki on

      Can anyone just choose to go on them overnight? I assumed you had to be very obese, Channel 5 documentary obese, to get on them?

    27. barnaclebear on

      As an eating disorder survivor and recovery campaigner, this man should not be the health secretary if he’s going to make statements like this in public because it’s so unbelievably damaging. Not only is it reinforcing thin = good, fat = bad, but behaving like it’s fine to have a workplace culture where people are making inappropriate comments about people’s bodies? What the hell is wrong with him?

      Main issues – many people are in larger bodies because they have an emotional attachment to food that causes an ensuing impact on their weight. When I was a kid, before I was diagnosed with anorexia, I used to binge eat in secret because it was a way of self soothing when my mum was emotionally unavailable due to stuff in her own life. That later became starving myself which shut off my emotions, and that then became laxative abuse and self induced vomiting alongside starvation. I can categorically tell you that the only time the pain and noise in my head stopped was in the moments I was making myself sick. I felt totally calm, then it would kick off again. I didn’t fix these issues with chemicals, I fixed them by understanding the emotions I was masking and dealing with the problems that I wasn’t able to cope with before, as well as being diagnosed with ADHD. Then it stopped.

      Weight loss injections can be transformative if used appropriately. But what he’s suggesting is insane. There’s already multiple examples of underweight people misusing them and having serious consequences (eg Lottie Moss). Culturally we are at a point where people are seeing more diversity in representation & actually beginning to like themselves, rather than trying to force their bodies into shapes that aren’t natural or sustainable for them. No eating disorders expertise was requested during this consultation. What happens when you get to a ‘normal’ BMI? You can’t just keep losing weight forever and long term it’s not a sustainable solution, as soon as you stop, the weight goes back on. Psychological support and investing in existing mental health services, as well as helping people to access cheaper activity options and working with supermarkets to lower the price of fruit & veg would be a good start.

      Under no circumstances am I saying there isn’t a use for these treatments, but from the perspective of my lived experience, I genuinely felt sick reading this statement. It showed a total lack of understanding and compassion for the millions of sufferers in the UK (NHS stats est 3-4m).

    28. Subject_Ear_1656 on

      Uncomfortable with how readily Streeting jumps from saying it’s to help the poorest people to saying it’s to save the NHS money. The first is valid, the second is not. We shouldn’t be basing the medical care of millions of people on a perceived cost saving down the line.

      The same arguments were made about oxycontin.

    29. voluntarydischarge69 on

      What other drugs are they on its about time MPs had drink and drug testing

    30. Educational_Pin_1455 on

      Good for them. If losing some weight makes you feel more confident and be more active, crack on

    31. Connor123x on

      Maybe time should be spent on the quality of food being most is highly processed.

    33. Huge___Milkers on

      Half the people running our country don’t have the self discipline or ability to just eat less food and maybe do some more exercise?

      Hell you don’t even need to do any exercise to lose weight, just eat less food

    34. orangecloud_0 on

      The ozempuc craze? Dont you have to stay on those for life if you start?

    35. TurnLooseTheKitties on

      I daresay if the subsidised bars and eateries were closed to save the taxpayer some dosh, there would be less stuffing their face to need to go on weight loss jabs