Central Devon MP and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has backed a new NHS campaign to encourage smokers to quit for 2024.

The new smoke-free campaign aims to encourage all 5.3 million smokers in England to make a quit attempt this January in order to improve the nation's health and reduce likelihood of young people starting.

Mr Stride, who successfully campaigned for plain packaging of cigarettes to make them less appealing to young people, said: “As well as having devastating health effects, smoking costs the economy and wider society around £17 billion a year. I would urge smokers to make 2024 the year they give up – both for themselves and to deter young people from taking up the habit.”

In the campaign film, former England goalkeeper and ex-smoker David James joined a number of other ex-smokers to discuss the influence their parents’ smoking had on them taking up the habit themselves and how being around children was their motivation to quit.

Research has shown that teens are more than three times as likely to smoke if their parents, caregivers or friends do.

The UK is now in the lead to be the first country in the world to create a smoke free generation by phasing out the sale of tobacco, and is set to introduce a new law to stop children who turned 14 in 2023 - or are younger - from ever legally being sold tobacco in England.