Labour has advised banning birthday cakes from primary schools and nurseries as part of its "nanny state" crackdown with health measures.
The Department for Education recommended that schools discourage parents from bringing sweets or cakes to mark their child's birthday.
Instead, parents have been told to bring "fruit platters", with schools advised to promote "healthy eating habits" instead.
Parents said it has taken the fun out of children's birthday celebrations.
Shadow Health Secretary, Stuart Andrew, said: "Instead of addressing the real challenges facing the NHS, Labour seems more focused on performative, petty policies.
"Blaming birthday cakes is just a distraction that does nothing to fix the system and only highlights Labour's lack of serious solutions.
"Families don't need the state policing party food, they need leadership that takes public health seriously, and only the Conservatives can deliver that."
GB News host and former cabinet minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg pushed back against the recommendations.
Shadow health secretary, Stuart Andrew, described the advice as one of many 'petty policies'
| GETTY"Nanny sends my younger children to school on their birthdays with little cakes, which is a pleasure for everyone, especially me, as she always makes a few extra.
"Only socialists want to stop such innocent pleasures," he told The Telegraph.
The Department for Education's Early Years Foundation Stage nutrition guidance has been issued this term.
It reads: "Many families like to celebrate their child's birthday and other special events by bringing in a cake or sweets to the setting to share.
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"This can mean that some children are eating these unhealthy foods several times a week."
Reacting to the measures online, one mother said: "I would be fuming if my children's nursery had done that. How pathetic can you get?
"We need to educate parents and children in healthy eating, but forbidding cake and sweets is beyond your pay grade. They go through kids' lunch boxes now and confiscate what they deem to be unhealthy. We are becoming a nanny state."
Several schools have begun implementing the guidance to ban birthday cakes.
Parents complained about the advice from the Department for Education
|WIKIMEDIACOMMONS
Roxbourne Primary School in Harrow announced it would follow the recommendations "to help promote healthy eating".
Parents are encouraged to bring in gifts such as "stationery" for class studies or "to donate a book to our school library" instead.
Tufnell Park Primary School in London has replaced cakes with "songs, cards, hats and making children feel special".
Trinity Road Primary School in Essex said: "We love birthdays, but we are a healthy school, so if you would like to celebrate your child's birthday with their class, we encourage you to buy a class book, a game, or send fruit."
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