Boris Johnson has pledged to halt hikes on so-called sin taxes, which include levies on tobacco, alcohol and sugar.

The Conservative Party leadership frontrunner says he will review the effectiveness of taxes on unhealthy products if he becomes the UK’s next Prime Minister.

He also wants to find out if the levies unfairly hit people on low incomes and says he wont introduce any more until the review has been completed.

His campaign gives taxes on fatty, salty and sugary foods as an example but his team have not yet said if the review would include levies on cigarettes and alcohol.

The news coincides with the launch of a high profile Cancer Research UK campaign warning obesity causes more cases of certain cancers than cigarettes.

It also comes as Health Secretary Matt Hancock is set to publish a green paper which recommends extending the sugar tax to milkshakes.

Mr Johnson wasn’t a fan of the idea, saying: ‘The recent proposal for a tax on milkshakes seems to me to clobber those who can least afford it.

‘If we want people to lose weight and live healthier lifestyles, we should encourage people to walk, cycle and generally do more exercise.

‘Rather than just taxing people more, we should look at how effective the so-called ‘sin taxes’ really are, and if they actually change behaviour.’

But when he was London Mayor in 2016, Mr Johnson introduced a 10p levy on all added-sugar soft drinks sold in City Hall.

At the time he said fighting obesity was ‘one of the biggest’ health challenges.

Mr Johnson hails Brexit as an ‘historic opportunity to change the way politics is done in this country’.

He added: ‘A good way to start would be basing tax policy on clear evidence.’

The sugar tax on soft drinks was introduced in April last year and has been celebrated by experts including the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

Cancer Research UK chief executive Michelle Mitchell pointed to the Treasury’s analysis which showed the sugar tax wiped 90 million kg of sugar from the nation’s diet on the first day.

She added: ‘Physical activity is one way to lose weight but the government also has a big role to play if we are to significantly reduce obesity levels.’

Ms Mitchell said taxes on unhealthy products have helped bring smoking levels down to ‘record lows’, including in deprived communities.

Chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health Deborah Arnott said any move away from current tobacco taxing would be a ‘grave error’.

She said: ‘Smoking kills more than 100,000 people in Britain each year. And the evidence from other countries is clear, when taxes stop going up, smoking rates are likely to stop going down.

‘Making tobacco less affordable via taxation is considered to be the most effective means of discouraging young people from starting to smoke and helping adult smokers to quit.’

‘That’s why this government and its predecessors have implemented an escalator for tobacco taxes which increases prices above inflation at every Budget.’

England’s chief medical officer Professor Dame Sally Davies says she wants to incentivise healthy food sales – potentially subsidising them by taxing all unhealthy food.

The Obesity Health Alliance’s Caroline Cerny said voluntary programmes for the food industry to cut sugar ‘have not had the same success’ as taxation.

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