A leading charity has called on politicians to commit to tackling the “alarming rise” in cases of type 2 diabetes among people aged under 40.

A new report by Diabetes UK, published during Type 2 Diabetes Prevention Week, titled Reverse the Trend - Reducing type 2 diabetes in young people reveals a 40 per cent rise in type 2 diabetes diagnoses in younger people between 2016-17 and 2022-23.

There are now almost 168,000 people under 40 years in the UK who live with type 2 diabetes, an increase of more than 47,000 since 2016-17.

While type 2 diabetes has historically been associated with older people, cases among under-40s have been on the rise in recent years and are now increasing at a faster rate than among over-40s.

The report also finds that the impact is felt disproportionately by those from the most deprived areas and people from Black and South Asian backgrounds.

Children in the most deprived areas are more than five times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those in the least deprived areas.

Diabetes UK said the report “should serve as a wake-up call to policymakers that this is an incredibly troubling growing trend.”