The Guardian splashed this morning on Andrew Lansley’s plans to abolish the Food Standards Agency, sparking accusations from health charities that he had “caved in to big business”. The FSA had been fighting a battle with the food industry over the introduction of colour-coded “traffic light” warnings for groceries and snacks.
Many MPs across the coalition would like to see an end to this particular quango. But a spokesperson for Lansley (pictured) told me today that no decision had been taken; instead, the FSA is under review, as are all arms-lengths bodies. “It’s not even mentioned in today’s white paper,” she says.
What the Guardian has missed – but Labour Uncut points out today – is that Lansley’s special adviser, Bill Morgan, recently worked in public relations. For a company called Mandate Communications, whose clients have included Cadbury, Tesco and Coca-Cola.
I’m told by Lansley’s spokeswoman that Morgan never worked for any of those companies while at Mandate, however. Thus ends the conspiracy theory.
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey