Boris Johnson using a personal trainer is a high-profile fix to mask his policy failings

We all need long-term sustainable habits to reduce the UK’s obesity problem, writes Janet Street-Porter

Snaps of the PM exercising are no advert for health benefits

Only the other week an overweight man had the astonishing cheek to urge Brits to emerge from lockdown and embark on a mission to get fit and shed those extra pounds we’d piled on snacking in front of the telly. Boris Johnson might seem an unlikely poster boy for any kind of health campaign but he’s proved to be a man of his word – having been snapped this week working out with a celebrity trainer said to charge £165 an hour.

Sadly, jogging when you weigh more than fifteen stone is the worst kind of exercise, placing serious strain on your heart and knee joints. Johnson (possibly because he has a glamorous skinny fiancee several decades younger than the date on his birth certificate) has fallen prey to what I call middle-aged man syndrome.

He wants to morph into a lean, mean macho fellow, sending the message to voters that he’s 100 per cent fit, utterly recovered from Covid-19 and more than capable of running the country through these challenging times. Unfortunately, vanity (and modern fashion) has meant he’s going about the task completely the wrong way.