Images of cheeseburgers, sugary drinks, chocolate bars and salted nuts are to be banned from the Tube and bus stops in a crackdown on junk food advertising.
Mayor Sadiq Khan said adverts promoting unhealthy food aimed at children would not be allowed across the Transport for London network from February 25.
The move was welcomed by anti-obesity campaigners including TV chefs Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall . But critics said a “paternalistic” ban was unlikely to work.
Almost 38 per cent of London children aged 10 and 11 are overweight or obese — more than any other European city. Almost 7,000 UK children and young adults have type 2 diabetes, which is linked to obesity.
Mr Khan said: “Child obesity is putting the lives of young Londoners at risk and placing huge pressure on our already strained health service.
“Advertising plays a huge part in the choices we make, whether we realise it or not, and Londoners have shown overwhelming support for a ban on adverts for junk food and drink on our transport network.”
City Hall said 82 per cent of the 1,500 responses to its consultation supported a ban. A YouGov poll of 1,000 Londoners found 80 per cent supportive or neutral.
About £20 million of TfL’s £147 million annual advertising income is from food and drink adverts. Of this, £13 million of adverts would fall foul of the new rules. The Mayor hopes the income will be replaced by different kinds of adverts.
Professor Dame Sally Davies, chief medical officer for England, said the ban was “an important step in the right direction”.
Jamie Oliver called it “an amazing move”, while Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall said he was “delighted”, adding: “This is a real victory for veg.”
Daniel Pryor, of the Adam Smith Institute, said: “Sadiq Khan thinks now is the perfect time to sink another £13 million on a paternalistic fast food ad ban despite no credible evidence that it will reduce childhood obesity rates.”
