IEA Head of Lifestyle Economics Christopher Snowdon has written for Spiked! arguing that Labour proposals for state-sponsored tooth brushing are unnecessary.

Christopher wrote:

“His scheme is only going to cost £9million a year and it won’t infringe on the rights of adults, so I don’t really care either way. I am more concerned by Starmer’s support for the incremental ban on smoking and the ban on so-called junk-food advertising. I am also concerned that Starmer appears to believe that British children are a bunch of podgy, stunted troglodytes with rotten teeth, as this is simply not true.

“Tooth decay among 15-year-olds was almost universal in 1983, with 93 per cent exhibiting clear signs of the problem. By 2013, this had fallen to 42 per cent. These improvements seem to have continued. Recently published figures show that the proportion of five-year-olds exhibiting visible tooth decay dropped from 30.9 per cent in 2008 to 23.7 per cent in 2022. The nation’s teeth are far from perfect, but childhood tooth decay is a problem that is spiralling downwards, not upwards.”

Read Christopher’s full piece here.