Boris Johnson is to tell GPs to prescribe bicycles to help patients beat obesity.
They will be able to get free hire or borrow bikes from surgeries.
The PM has pinched the idea from former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, whose £7.2billion cycling and walking plan unveiled at last year’s General Election included bikes on the NHS.
It is part of Mr Johnson’s new obesity strategy, which demands calorie counts on restaurant menus and alcohol sold in shops.
The Better Health campaign, aimed at 35million overweight Brits, will ban junk food ads before 9pm and target online ads.
It comes after the PM blamed his own near-death from Covid-19 on being overweight – estimated to increase the risk by 40 per cent.
A Whitehall source said: “Covid-19 is a wake-up call.”
Shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “Years of Tory cuts created the conditions for the obesity crisis.”
Weight played a part in 876,000 2019 hospital admissions and costs the NHS £6bn a year.
