Steve Brine MP against government's plans to scrap smoking reduction

The Conservative former health minister outlined a number of cases where he believes public information campaigns and government interventions prevent avoidable harm, focusing on health but joining with another Tory former minister to voice support for an energy-saving campaign this winter too.

Mr Brine, speaking in the Commons, said that if supporting cancer awareness campaigns to save lives counts as nanny statism then “I’m a nanny statist”.

The government has promised to publish a tobacco control plan “later this year”, but the Guardian said ministers are expected to break that commitment.

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On Tuesday, Health Secretary Therese Coffey was unable to say whether this is the case, instead saying her priority was on her ambitions for “ABCD” – ambulances, backlog, care, doctors and dentists.

Last week, climate minister Graham Stuart argued one reason for the government not undertaking an information campaign to encourage people to reduce their energy usage is because “we’re also hesitant to tell people what they should do when we’re not a nanny-state government”.

Mr Brine was speaking during the committee stage of the Health and Social Care Levy (Repeal) Bill in the House of Commons.

The Bill will scrap the national insurance rise introduced by former prime minister Boris Johnson’s government, which was intended to provide additional funding for health and social care.

“It’s the biggest cause of cancer in the world today,” he said of smoking, describing how the “smoking cessation plan” was published when he was in office, adding “and yet press reports suggest that is to be dropped as well”.

“I suggest, gently, that would be a massive own goal to our government, and to the NHS,” he said.

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Labour MP Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) said: “The savings to be made by implementing an effective tobacco control plan can be absolutely massive in the longer term.”

Mr Brine agreed, and also mentioned efforts to get women to check their breasts for cancer.

“I lost my mother to breast cancer – destroyed much of my family,” he said, adding “Breast Cancer Now tell me that they think there are 12,000 undiagnosed breast cancers in this country today.

“If the nanny state means implementing Be Clear on Cancer campaigns to help people avoid cancer, I’m a nanny statist,” he said.

Conservative former minister David Rutley said: “Would he also agree that at a time of real challenge, of which we definitely face now, that it’s important to drive public awareness about how to use energy more efficiently to help people with their fuel bills?”

Mr Brine said: “If the energy price guarantee were genuinely an energy cap, and you couldn’t pay more than the cap, then there would be some argument to not having a public campaign to advise people on energy.

“It’s not a cap, it is an energy price guarantee. If you use more energy you will pay for more energy, therefore it would seem logical to me, on lots of levels, to help people save energy. What do I know?”

He also referenced the “phenomenal amount of money” spent on diabetes care, asking “so why wouldn’t we want to encourage people to manage their weight better, one of the big drivers of diabetes?”

“If we don’t believe in prevention, and in my heart I believe that this front bench does believe in prevention, then the costs of the NHS that are predicted in that OBR (Office for Budget Responsibility) book are going to look quite conservative,” he said.

“If we believe in prevention, and as I say I believe that the front bench do, then we need to have the courage to act on that prevention,” he said, adding: “If we don’t do that then the NHS will continue to cost unsustainable amounts of money, and it will become unsustainable.”