LONDON — In 2024, everything is political — even dieting. And especially when it involves Ozempic.
In an interview with the London Playbook newsletter, Tory Party leadership hopeful Robert Jenrick told POLITICO that he has been taking the controversial drug in an effort to lose weight.
“To be honest, I was overweight,” Jenrick said. “I took Ozempic for a short period of time, didn’t particularly enjoy it, but it was helpful.”
“Since then I’ve just lost weight in the normal way by eating less, eating more healthily, doing some exercise — going to the gym, going running. I’ve lost four stone in 12 months,” he added.
Jenrick set tongues wagging in late 2023 after his weight loss — and new haircut — were noticed by colleagues, who suspected his smartened-up image suggested he might fancy a tilt at power.
He has since become one of the frontrunners to replace former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as leader of Britain’s opposition Conservatives.
Ozempic, a treatment for type-2 diabetes, contains the drug semaglutide, which makes users feel full and reduces appetite. Britain’s National Health Service is currently facing a shortage of the medication due to its burgeoning use for weight loss.
Two other treatments, Wegovy and Mounjaro, also contain the drug, and have seen big surges in interest. Medical experts have warned against using them as a “quick-fix,” however, and point to a number of side effects.
Jenrick is one of the few high-profile politicians to admit to using new weight loss drugs such as Ozempic, although other prominent users include X boss Elon Musk, who said he had tried Wegovy. But Jenrick is far from the first politico to publicly speak out about their dieting techniques as they seek to get healthy — and perhaps boost a flagging career.
Boris Johnson
Former U.K. PM Boris Johnson gave Ozempic a go. It didn’t work for him, but he remained optimistic about its powers for good.
In his first (six-figure) column for the Daily Mail newspaper, Johnson revealed he’d tried Ozempic, after noticing that some members of his Cabinet had suddenly shed a pound or two.
“If an otherwise healthy middle-aged man displays sudden weight loss, I reasoned, there are only two possible explanations. Either he has fallen hopelessly in love, or else he is about to mount a Tory leadership bid,” Johnson wrote.
In an attempt to become an “ex-glutton, a person of moderation and grace and restraint … a chiselled whippet,” Johnson joined his colleagues on the drug.
But after a few weeks of losing four or five pounds a week, Johnson said things started to go wrong, and that the injections were making him feel ill. He didn’t go into more detail — but did add that he believed as the science progresses, the drugs would improve.
Nadine Dorries
The former culture secretary — and close ally and friend of Johnson — also has a Daily Mail column. And Dorries also used that column to announce to the world she’d embarked on a journey with the wonder weight-loss drug.
Unlike Johnson, Dorries went into more detail about some of the side effects.
“I got up … feeling groggy, light-headed and out of sorts,” Dorries wrote of the morning after a nightmare plagued-sleep that followed her first injection of Mounjaro.
“I was on breakfast duty and my granddaughter asked for toast and peanut butter. Making some for myself, I took two bites, which landed in my stomach like giant pebbles,” she added. “I did something I never do. I burped and I burped, again and again.”
Dorries said she later fainted after forgetting to eat for almost 24 hours.
But the former MP was still happy with her experience on the drug, which she said helped her lose a significant amount of excess weight.
“I am a happier person, more confident and I know I’m looking better than I have in 10 years,” she said.
Nigel Lawson
He may have been the dad of celebrity cookbook icon Nigella Lawson — but Margaret Thatcher’s former chancellor became known for writing about his dieting habits in later life.
During his political career, Lawson was cruelly lampooned by newspaper cartoonists who exaggerated his weight.
But the late Lawson had the last laugh — shedding five stone in a matter of months. He then published the “Nigel Lawson Diet Book,” in which — in the pre-Ozempic world — he simply advocated cutting down on fatty foods and alcohol.
Tom Watson
Former Labour Deputy Leader Tom Watson is another British politician who has written extensively about weight loss. He’s also bravely spoken out about his struggles with an eating disorder.
In 2018 Watson stunned Westminster by shedding seven stone on a “keto” diet, reversing his Type 2 diabetes.
Famously, Watson’s diet involved drinking “bulletproof” coffee — adding butter to his drink to stave off hunger during the day.
He published “Downsizing” in 2020, sharing his weight loss story, and then “Lose Weight 4 Life” in 2022, which he described as a “blueprint for long-term, sustainable weight loss.”
He has admitted his weight fluctuated during the coronavirus lockdowns, and advocates for weight loss to be viewed as a journey rather than a destination.
George Osborne
The former chancellor followed the Robert Jenrick regime before it became cool — and minus the Ozempic.
George Osborne was revealed to be on a 5-2 diet — eating five days and fasting two days in a week — in 2014 as speculation mounted that he might fancy a tilt at the top job held by his chum and then PM David Cameron.
He also got himself a new, Caesar-style, haircut — similar to the one currently sported by Jenrick.
Unfortunately for Osborne, Britain’s 2016 Brexit vote — and Theresa May — swiftly ended his political career.
Mike Pompeo
Speculation about a possible presidential run by former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo went into overdrive after he told Fox News in January 2022 that he had lost in excess of 90 pounds over the preceding six months.
Pompeo credited the weight loss to exercising “nearly every day” and “eating right.”
But weight loss experts speaking to the Kansas City Star — Pompeo’s old local paper — poured scorn on the idea it was possible to lose so much weight in such a short time without surgery or medical intervention.
Pompeo continues to struggle with his weight, joking with POLITICO colleagues and others in February this year about how much weight he has put back on — but then appearing to have lost much of it again when he spoke at the Republican National Convention last month.
Bill Clinton
In the wake of heart trouble, former U.S. President Bill Clinton adopted a (then-)unusual diet in 2010 — going vegan.
He credits the no animal by-product diet with both keeping him alive and helping him to permanently lose a significant amount of weight.
One of the top vegan information websites credits Clinton’s veganism with helping to “shift public consciousness toward healthier and more humane eating habits.”
JD Vance
Donald Trump’s running mate revealed this month that he shed 30 pounds in the last two years. And the weight loss helped Trump notice him, too.
Vance put his trimmer figure down to “eating better” — and firmly denied, in an interview with the Daily Mail, taking any drugs to hasten the weight loss.
“Time will tell, man,” Vance said. “In three months, maybe I’ll be a lot fatter.”