Obesity and Fatty Liver Disease

Lorraine Beavers Excerpts

Tuesday 28th October 2025 Westminster Hall

[Lorraine Beavers (Blackpool North and Fleetwood) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Efford. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Worthing West (Dr Cooper) for securing this vital and timely debate.

Liver disease is quietly stealing lives in every corner of our country. It is now the second-biggest cause of early death in England and Wales. Deaths have risen by more than 40% since 2001, which is in stark contrast to deaths from heart disease and cancer, which have declined. What makes it so heartbreaking is that 90% of liver disease cases are preventable.

In my constituency of Blackpool North and Fleetwood, this crisis is felt deeply. Blackpool has the second-highest rate of liver disease deaths in the entire country, with over 41 deaths per 100,000 people—almost double the national average. Childhood obesity rates are among the worst in England, meaning that many of our young people are already on the path to serious illness before they have even left school.

This is not about blaming people for their weight or lifestyle; it is about the world we live in—one where the cheapest food is often the least healthy, and where families in struggling communities have fewer choices and less support. Across England, people in the most deprived areas are more than six times as likely to die early from fatty liver disease. In parts of the north-west, people are dying 10 years younger than those in the wealthier areas. That is not right and it is not fair. Behind every statistic is a family torn apart.

Jamia and Stuart, in my constituency, were together for 35 years and cared for two disabled children. Stuart was fit and kind. When his stomach began to swell, he did not realise it was a warning sign. By the time he was diagnosed with fatty liver disease, it was too late. He passed away just eight weeks later. Their children still wake up at night looking for their dad. No family should go through that, but, tragically, they are not alone. The British Liver Trust has shared similar stories. Stephen, for example, was diagnosed far too late after years of missed opportunities for testing.

These stories are painful reminders that three quarters of people with cirrhosis are diagnosed only when they turn up at A&E, when it is often too late for treatment. We can change that. Early testing can save lives. Simple, painless scans, such as fibroscans, enhanced liver fibrosis testing, or the new intelligent liver function testing pathway, can spot liver damage long before the symptoms appear. Pilots of those tests have shown a 43% increase in early diagnosis and major savings for the NHS. Every community diagnostic centre, including the one on Whitegate Drive in Blackpool, should be able to offer those tests. Early diagnosis makes liver disease largely reversible and gives people the chance to act before it is too late.

We also need to tackle obesity at its roots, not by lecturing people but by making it easier to be healthy. That means fair prices for good food, limits on junk food advertising aimed at children, and continued action such as the soft drinks industry levy, which cut sugar content by nearly 30% across the market without hurting sales, and even reduced childhood obesity among girls in year 6. We need stronger measures to make the healthy choice the easy choice: reformulation of ultra-processed foods, a comprehensive 9 pm watershed on junk food advertising and a level playing field for businesses that want to do the right thing. Such structural changes, not finger pointing, can reshape the food system for good.

Finally, we must make sure that the NHS is ready for the new medicines that are coming. Medicines that target liver scarring directly and other treatments that improve weight loss and metabolic health could be transformative, but those new therapies, which could stop liver disease in its tracks, must be available on the NHS to everyone, not just to those who can pay privately. That means planning for workforce capacity, diagnostics and equitable access because if we fail to prepare, we risk widening the health inequalities that have already cost too many lives in towns such as mine.

Liver disease may be a silent killer but we do not have to stay silent about it. If we work together across parties, communities and the NHS we can stop this pandemic before it claims another life like Stuart’s. We can give families hope, and give our children the healthy future that they deserve.