Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to launch a communist China-style social credit score app that will reward families based on government-approved choices at the grocery store.

The supposedly Conservative government will launch an app by the end of the year to monitor the supermarket spending habits of families in the UK. Those who choose “healthier” options such as fruits and vegetables or engage in exercise will be rewarded with “loyalty points” in the app, which will translate into discounts and other incentives.

“There is a whole team in Downing Street working on this, and the Prime Minister thinks that we simply cannot go on as before and that we must now tackle it head-on,” a White Hall source told The Telegraph.

“He has been on a very rigorous diet and exercise programme and it is likely he will play a leading role in fronting this whole campaign.”

The outgoing head of the NHS, Lord Stevens said that the UK’s socialised healthcare system will be weighed down in the future if the government failed to tackle the rising obesity in the country.

“The layers of the onion… stretch out to things that are obviously beyond a healthcare system’s direct control, including the obesogenic food environment that children and poorer communities are exposed to.

“Countries, where more than half the population are overweight, have had 10 times more Covid death,” Lord Stevens noted.

Some have criticised the nanny state mentality of the government, likening the programme to the social credit score in China, which tracks the habits of citizens, awarding positive points for buying things like diapers and subtractions for buying alcohol. The communist scheme has also seen tens of millions of citizens barred from travelling because their score was too low.

Political commentator Calvin Robinson wrote in response to the idea of tracking supermarket spending: “The party of small state and privacy has become the party of nanny state interventionism. For shame.

“The Conservative Party needs new leadership.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who blamed his weight for his difficulties when he contracted the Chinese coronavirus last year, has radically shifted his position on government intrusions into personal matters since then.

As a candidate for the Tory Party leadership two years ago, Johnson pledged a review of “sin stealth taxes” and promised to end the “continuing creep of the nanny state”.

“It’s time to take a proper look at the continuing creep of the nanny state and the impact it has on hardworking families across Britain.

“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,” Mr Johnson had said.

However, despite his professed libertarian leanings, Mr Johnson has governed in a far more authoritarian manner, in particular during the Chinese coronavirus crisis, during which he has spearheaded some of the strictest lockdown measures in the world.

Last month, the government announced that “new laws will ban the advertising of food high in fat, sugar or salt (HFSS) on television and online before 9 p.m. when children are most likely to see them.”

This month a government-backed review also called for increased taxes on sugar and salt, ostensibly in order to reduce obesity, however, critics have warned that the taxes will merely punish the poor, who are less able to purchase healthier alternatives.

The review went on to say that Britons should seek out “alternative” sources of protein in lieu of eating meat, including consuming lab-grown meat, which they claimed was better for the environment.

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here @KurtZindulka