Boris Johnson is set to bring in sweeping new measures to cut the amount of junk food advertising Brits are exposed to, according to reports.
The new rules would see adverts for unhealthy food high in fat, sugar or salt banned before the 9pm watershed on TV and online - and could come in as soon as Sunday or the start of next week.
Obesity is thought to make Covid-19 symptoms worse, and Mr Johnson is said to have been shaken by his own close call with the virus, the Guardian reported.
This would be a change of stance after he previously criticised the sugar tax as a "sin stealth tax". The Prime Minister said in June that British people "will be happier, fitter and more resistant to diseases like Covid if we can tackle obesity."
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The UK has one of the highest obesity rates in the world and the highest coronavirus death rate in Europe, although adverts for unhealthy food are already subject to heavy restrictions.
Care minister Helen Whately this morning said she couldn't confirm the ban would happen, but added the Government was considering the policy.
She told Sky News: "We do need to tackle obesity as a nation, we do need to be healthier. We know it's not easy to make healthy choices and the Government is going to want to help people."
Campaigners praised the proposed move as a step in the right direction.
Katharine Jenner, campaign director at pressure group Action on Sugar, said: "If the Government’s soon to be released obesity plan is to be effective – four years after Chapter 1 was officially published – then there needs to be real joined up policies, including a complete ban on heavily promoting and discounting junk food, alongside no junk food adverts before 9pm, calorie reformulation, and only making healthier, more nutritious food more affordable."
But industry and business leaders have slammed the proposed move, drawing attention to the impact the ban could have on companies already struggling under the strain caused by coronavirus.
Stephen Woodford, of the Advertising Association, a trade body for the industry, said the move would have "a significant economic impact at a time when the economy is already under strain."
He added: "The government must reconsider any proposals which could damage the recovery, jobs, and people’s livelihoods, just at the very moment everyone is working so hard to recover."
TV broadcasters have previously said that a ban on junk food advertising before 9pm could cost them up to £200 million in revenue each year.
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Phil Smith, Director General of ISBA, another advertising trade body, said: “Brands have partnered effectively with government over the lockdown period to support, develop and amplify public health campaigns as well as safeguard and support employees.
"Just as business begins to chart a course back from the severe impacts of Covid-19, such an ill-thought out policy cuts across Treasury efforts to support the sector and risks jobs and livelihoods."
Critics also drew attention to research that suggested that an advertising ban on junk food might not have a huge impact on people's health.
Daniel Pryor of the right-wing think tank the Adam Smith Institute said: "Banning junk food ads before watershed would give us worse TV and do nothing to improve the nation's health.
"A large body of evidence shows that advertising doesn't brainwash us into buying things we don't want. Instead it works by boosting specific brands, like encouraging people who fancy a takeaway to choose Wagamama over Nando's...
"Public health nannies might want to treat us all like brainwashed children, but we should reject them and their half-baked nonsense."