Benefits crackdown to see obese Britons offered FREE Ozempic weight-loss drug

The jabs will be given to jobless Britons free of charge to get them off the sofa and “back to work”.

Streeting’s suggestion coincides with the Government’s announcement that they will receive a £280million investment from Lilly - the world’s largest pharmaceutical company - which will help develop new drugs and treatment in the UK.

Working with Lilly, the Government plans to conduct the first real-world trial of the weight-loss drugs’ effect on worklessness, according to The Telegraph.

The Health Secretary wrote in the publication: “As a country, we’re eating more, eating less healthily and exercising less. The costs to the individual are clear – a less healthy and shorter life.

“Our widening waistbands are also placing a significant burden on our health service, costing the NHS £11billion a year – even more than smoking. And it’s holding back our economy.

“Illness caused by obesity causes people to take an extra four sick days a year on average, while many others are forced out of work altogether.”

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Sir Keir Starmer has backed the idea, believing that the distribution of weight-loss drugs for free could help reduce pressure on the NHS.

Speaking to the BBC, the Prime Minister said: “I think these drugs could be very important for our economy and for health.

“This drug will be very helpful to people who want to lose weight, need to lose weight, very important for the economy so people can get back into work.

“Very important for the NHS because, as I've said time and again, yes, we need more money for our NHS, but we've got to think differently.

“We've got to reduce the pressure on the NHS. So this will help in all of those areas.”

Approximately 40 per cent of the NHS’s budget is spent on preventable health conditions, like obesity, and this figure is set to soar to a staggering 60 per cent by 2040.

The Government’s new trial aims to test the drug Mounjaro and establish its real-world effectiveness. The drug, hailed as the “King Kong” of weight-loss jabs, helped people lose over a fifth of their body weight over 36 weeks.

The study, which will involve up to 3,000 obese people, will aim to quantify the medicine’s long term effects on obesity, diabetes, and weight-related complications.

It will also assess whether Mounjaro will impact worklessness culture and get people back on their feet and into the workforce, with data being collected over a five-year period.

Streeting said that whilst the jabs should not be seen as an alternative to correcting unhealthy lifestyles, the shots could majorly overhaul the worklessness crisis in the UK.