Boris Johnson Focusing On Obesity Over Women And BAME People Because He's Obese, Says Labour MP

Boris Johnson has made tackling obesity his main lesson from the coronavirus crisis instead of helping women or Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people because that is “the thing that he is”, a Labour MP has said.

Jess Phillips criticised the prime minister for focusing on an issue close to home rather than looking at health interventions for BAME people, who suffer worse Covid-19 death rates, or helping women, who appear to have been impacted more than men by the crisis.

The shadow domestic violence minister said Johnson, who has recently hired celebrity personal trainer Harry Jameson to help him shed weight, was not paying attention to the plight of women in the pandemic “at all”.

Johnson has acknowledged he was “too fat” when he caught coronavirus and went into intensive care in April.

In July, he said he was not keen on “nannying or bossying” but urged the country to “lose weight” to protect lives if there is a second wave of coronavirus.

Speaking to What Were You Thinking?, a podcast by the Big Tent Ideas festival shared in advance with HuffPost UK, Phillips said: “I don’t disagree as somebody who has recently lost a stone and a half after Covid binging that Boris Johnson has gone out on the television to talk about obesity and the effects of corona (and) obesity and how it’s more dangerous.

“The disproportionate number of Black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people who have died during the Covid-19 crisis and the vast majority of the economic and social impacts being on women, and the thing that he went for is the thing that he is – and that was obesity.

“If you’re going to make Covid make you wake up about something, it’s just not a surprise that it’s a thing that he has experienced that is the thing we are now all talking about – losing a few pounds so we’re not...

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