VAT on cakes and biscuits could save 3,000 lives a year

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Researchers from Oxford University said extending the VAT charge of 17.5 per cent to more high-fat foods would prevent many heart attacks and strokes - as well as making the Treasury millions.

Currently the charge is applied to confectionery, ice cream, savoury snacks and most drinks.

Public health expert Dr Mike Rayner and colleagues worked out the wider "fat tax" could save up to 3,200 lives a year.

The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, assessed economic data on food consumption in Britain and applied a mathematical formula to calculate the likely impact of price rises.

Dr Rayner said: "Given the high incidence of cardiovascular disease and the acknowledged contributory role of dietary salt and fat . . . a welldesigned and carefully targeted fat tax could be a useful tool for reducing the burden of food-related disease."

In 2004, Tony Blair rejected the idea of a tax on fatty foods, saying it would make Britain too much of a nanny state. But previous efforts to get the nation eating more healthily, including-Jamie Oliver's campaign to improve school dinners, have had limited success.

Separate research has also shown a scheme to give out free fruit in schools does not encourage children to eat more healthily later in life.

Figures released in April last year showed that around one in four 11- to 15-year-olds is now considered obese - rising from 14 per cent of boys in 1995 to 24 per cent in 2004 and 26 per cent of girls.

According to the British Heart Foundation, more than 216,000 people in Britain die of cardiovascular disease each year. About half of the deaths are from coronary heart disease and a quarter from strokes.