The launch of McDonald’s home delivery service in Leytonstone has come under fire from an obesity campaigner who says it will only deepen the “greater health divide”.

The fast food chain is offering McDelivery through UberEats for customers living within 1.5 miles of the Leytonstone High Road branch.

Instead of walking or driving to the newly refurbished branch, customers will be able to order their food through the UberEats app before couriers deliver it to their door.

But Robin Ireland, director of obesity charity Food Active, said McDonald’s move to meet the growing demand for delivery food was “ridiculous” and will only encourage bad eating habits.

He said: “It’s almost impossible to know where to start with this, we simply have to change culture.

“Having a service which is directly serving fast food is grossly unhelpful.

“We have to go a long way to change this culture because no doubt people will say ‘this is absolutely great’.

“We won’t stop people eating fast food, and I don’t necessarily want to do that, but we have to look at ways at making it healthy.”

Fearing for the health of future generations, the obesity campaigner said there is a strong correlation between more disadvantaged communities and obesity.

He added: “We are starting to build the greater health divide because people that tend to be on higher incomes I suspect are not the people these services are targeting.

“It’s likely to be people on lower incomes who are struggling to make ends meet, because the food is very cheap.

“They’re not that concerned about the nutritional value, they’re just concerned about getting food inside them.

“We’re compounding health inequalities and building up major problems for our future generations.”

McDelivery will also be available from another 21 locations across London between 7am and 2am.