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'Half of MPs' are taking weight-loss jabs, Wes Streeting tells LBC
3 July 2025, 14:40
Wes Streeting has revealed to LBC that “half of his colleagues" are taking weight-loss jabs as he pledged to make the injections more widely available on the NHS.
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People could soon get their NHS weight-loss jabs via shopping centres, a new health plan suggests, after the Health Secretary said the injections were the “talk of the House of Commons tea rooms”.
The 10-year plan for the health service says there is a need to expand access to weight-loss services and treatments and bring them closer to where people live and work.
And speaking to LBC on Thursday, Mr Streeting revealed “half of his colleagues” are taking the injections.
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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’.
“And the thing is, if you can afford these weight loss jabs, which can be over 200 quid a month, well that’s all right for you.
“But most people in this country haven’t got a spare two and a half grand a year and often the people who have the worst and most challenging obesity also have the lowest income.
“So I’m bringing to weight loss jabs the principle of fairness which has underpinned the NHS.
“It should be available based on need and not the ability to pay.
“And that’s what we’re going to do on weight-loss jabs, as well as a number of other things, including people getting more fit, more active, supporting people on diet and nutrition….that’s the bit of the weight-loss jab debate that sometimes gets lost.
“It’s not that you can have some weight-loss jabs and stuff your face with Jaffa cakes…”
He said obesity cost the NHS billions a year, adding that taxes have been going “up and up” to pay for the health service.
As part of Labour’s new 10-year plan, the Government will work with industry “to test innovative models of delivering weight loss services and treatments to patients effectively and safely” in convenient locations, which may include “on the high street, or at any out-of-town shopping centre”.
Digital-only models, where everything is done and managed online, may also be put in place, the plan says.
Furthermore, companies will not just paid if people lose weight, “but if that also translates into outcomes that really matter for patients, such as fewer heart attacks, strokes or cancer diagnoses”.
