“There has been a big increase in physical activity and that is the route to it.
“It is easier to get somebody active and then, once you feel active, you make healthier choices about diet, about drinking and about smoking.”
Asked about a “fat tax”, Mr Burnham said: “It is easy to get punitive on people but in my constituency, for example, people eat fast food because of the cost of it.
“I am never condemnatory of people.”
He revealed that Change4Life, the health campaign launched by his predecessor Alan Johnson, would be extended into separate campaigns entitled Walk4Life, Cycle4Life and even Dance4Life.
Mr Burnham is under pressure to act on health inequalities because a target for a 10% cut, by next year, in the huge life expectancy gap between rich and poor areas, will be missed.
Figures last year showed that, of six Merseyside “spearhead” areas with low life expectancies, which have all received extra funding, none are on course to hit the 10% target.
The gap is stark. For example, the average woman in Liverpool dies at the age of 78, compared to 87 in Kensington and Chelsea, which contains the most exclusive residential districts in London.
