Celebrity Calum Best is backing a new campaign to help the children of alcoholics.

The model and reality TV star, son of legendary footballer George Best, is joining politicians including Birmingham MP Liam Byrne to demand support for children affected by having an alcoholic parent.

Also taking part are Kim Woodburn, presenter of Channel 4 show How Clean is your House? and Lauren Booth, the sister-in-law of former Prime Minister Tony Blair and daughter of actor Anthony Booth.

They are all the children of alcoholics.

George Best, best known for playing for Manchester United and the Northern Ireland national team, was an alcoholic for most of his adult life and famously appeared drunk as a guest on Terry Wogan’s BBC One chat show in 1990.

Mr Byrne is leading a cross-party group of MPs and peers to begin work on an action plan to help Britain’s 2.6 million innocent victims of drink – the one in five kids who live with a mum or dad who drinks too much.

Football legend George Best
Football legend George Best

The initiative comes as a Freedom of Information request reveals that 84 per cent of councils have no plans to put in place a strategy to help children in need – despite a 30 per cent surge in alcohol-specific deaths and rising A&E admissions due to alcohol harm.

Mr Byrne revealed least year that his father Dermot Byrne was an alcoholic in a highly personal Commons speech in 2015.

And he argues that, while vital support is often in place to help alcoholics, their children are often left to suffer in silence.

He said: “I know the pain of having loved and lost a parent to alcohol when my own dad died last year. Lots of us like a drink but, when parents drink too much, it’s often the kids that pay the biggest price in damage to their mental health, or living in a home that’s short of money.

“Worse, nearly half of children of alcoholics go on to become alcoholics themselves, so the problem is cascading down the generations. We’ve got to break the cycle – and that’s why we’ve got to break the silence about this taboo subject and get some practical help in place.”

Liam Byrne and father Dermot Byrne
Liam Byrne and father Dermot Byrne

The cross-party group on Children of Alcoholics will hear from the celebrities at a House of Commons hearing. The aim is to use the evidence to draw up the first ever Manifesto for Children of Alcoholics for debate.

Children and alcoholism

  • Today, 2.6 million children live with a hazardous drinker – that’s one in five children – of which 705,000 live with a dependent drinker

  • Children of alcoholics are three times more likely to consider suicide – and five times more likely than others to develop an eating disorder

  • Worse, children of alcoholics are four times more likely to become alcoholics themselves. 78 per cent of young offenders who also misused alcohol had a history of parental substance misuse