Johnson said people were ‘gorging themselves’ to fill an ‘aching spiritual void’
Boris Johnson has blamed the Church of England for the child obesity crisis facing Britain, saying people are eating more because they are not being given the “living bread of spiritual sustenance.”
The former Prime Minister also said children are “all fatsos” nowadays because they are “being told it’s too dangerous to go outside because there are paedophiles everywhere.”
Johnson made the bizarre comments as part of a report urging the current government to do more to tackle the increasing rate of diet-related ill health in the UK, the Times reports.
He said when he was younger it was ““very rare for there to be a fatso in the class” despite the fact that kids consumed lots of junk food, but that nowadays “they’re all fatsos.”
Johnson said: “When I was a kid, we were all out playing in the streets the whole time. You don’t see that with kids nowadays… Now they’re all fatsos, and I’d be shot for saying they’re fatsos, but that’s the truth.
“People were skinnier, they ran around a huge amount, they drank phenomenal quantities of Tizer, they ate Spangles and Curly Wurlies and dog s***… but they expended far more energy and nowadays kids are sitting on screens and being told that it’s all too dangerous to go outside because there are paedophiles everywhere apparently.”
“There’s too much risk averse [aversion] about what kids can do, so they don’t take up exercise.”
He went on to blame the Church of England for this, saying religious leaders weren’t addressing “people’s spiritual needs,” which was causing them to eat more and “gorge themselves.”
Johnson said: “The Archbishop of Canterbury and religious leaders should try to fill what is obviously an aching spiritual void in people’s lives, that drives them to gorge themselves.
“Religious leaders, as well as politicians, they think, ‘what is up with people that they plainly are seeking solace in something that they know is self-destructive’.
“And when did you last hear the Archbishop of Canterbury preach a sermon about that?
“You know, there he is… droning on about how we’re all guilty and we must all be more left wing.”
Recalling one recent visit to church with his family, Johnson said: “I went to church yesterday, I was one of about ten people. Well, I mean 15 if you added up my family. It was all about how rich men can’t go through the eye of a needle, all that sort of pot.
“Why aren’t people going to church? Because it’s not really addressing the things… people’s spiritual needs. There’s something going on with people, they’re needing a lack of something, they’re eating it, they’re not getting it.
“You talk about living bread of spiritual sustenance, well, it’s not being provided by the blooming church, I can tell you that much. The living bread is being provided by Tesco and they’re gorging themselves on the real living bread, that’s what they’re doing.”
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The interview for the report was carried out before the Archbishop of Canterbury’s resignation earlier this month.
Johnson was one of three former prime minister’s interview for the report, carried out by Henry Dimbleby, the businessman and author of the National Food Strategy, and Dolly Van Tulleken, a public health expert.
Ten former health secretaries were also spoken to, who all admitted they had not done enough to tackle obesity when they were in office.
They have urged Keir Starmer to take tougher action to deal with obesity and the issue of diet-related ill health in the UK.
