Nick Ferrari teases Tom Watson over his mission to ban Tony the Tiger

Nick Ferrari put Tom Watson on the spot over his call to ban cartoon characters on food - and it was very entertaining.

The Deputy Labour leader is on a mission to reduce childhood obesity and one of the ways he wants to do this is to bring the rules regarding cereal packaging into line with billboard and broadcasting regulations.

And Ferrari had a very important question for Mr Watson: "Give me a straight answer: Do you want Tony The Tiger gone?"

When Watson admitted he was, the presenter teased him: "Tough on Tony the Tiger and tough on the causes of Tony the Tiger!"

But Watson told him: "We could talk about how sugar leads to obesity, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and even dementia.

"But what I said yesterday is I want the industry to get its self-regulation in order. Right now, the Advertising Standards Authority looks at billboards, off-the-page ads, broadcasts. The one thing it doesn't do is look at packaging which might be misleading.

"I want Kellogg's to be regulated like any other advertiser.

"A third of our kids leave Primary school overweight or obese. And most of the sugar they get is either from cereals or fizzy drinks."

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