Dev Sharma is the Youth MP for West Hampshire & Chair of Bite Back 2030, a youth-led movement campaigning for all young people to be given equal access to a good diet. Dev has delivered a Food Charter to no. 10 Downing Street, met with a number of key influential cabinet ministers and Labour leader Keir Starmer, and won the lauded Diana Award for his food poverty activism. Also a Member of the Youth Parliament for Leicestershire, Dev has been a powerful voice for youth on issues such as holiday hunger and Free School Meals. drawing on his own experiences at school to speak on behalf of his peers.
He’s also been a vocal campaigner on the influence of junk food advertising on young people, especially when being bombarded by publicity as he leaves school and on social media. Dev began the campaign to ban junk food advertising online, starting an online open letter campaign to Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock. In March 2021, he was successful in getting the government to ban junk food advertising online after his campaign was supported by celebrities such as Jamie Oliver and other large charities. Dev’s campaigning work has won him international acclaim, winning applause from Jamie Oliver and Dame Emma Thompson. Recently he has spoken at the UN Food Systems Summit, Global Obesity Summit in New York and switched on Leicester’s Diwali Lights, the largest celebration of Diwali outside India.