THE New Year promises exciting new health challenges for Andy Burnham and he wants the North West to help lead the way. The sport-loving Secretary of State for Health is looking not just to boost traditional areas of activity and care to aid the nation’s welfare but also to encourage dancing, swimming, cycling and cooking.

There are also tough plans ahead to restrict tobacco sales and display.

Mr Burnham had special words of praise for our NHS and Manchester Evening News’ monthly supplement in trying to underline the importance of this and other health issues:

“I Love Me gets the thumbs up from me!” he said. “It’s a brilliant way to get public health messages across.”

He said his department had learned that it had to improve on conveying simple, clear messages, “not being perceived as finger-wagging or dictating to people but giving them practical, useful information on how they can live their lives. The supplement does this job extremely well.”

The 40 year-old Liverpool-born politician, married with three children, brings to his ministerial role basic health common sense instilled in him as a lad. He has never smoked – “If you don’t count trying it once or twice as a youngster under the slide in Culceth!” – and his parents gave him a couple of rules for life. “One was no motor bikes and the other was no smoking,” he said. “I’m glad to say I’ve kept them both, and it’s advice I’ve now passed on to my own children.”

He is particularly proud of the smoking legislation and the impressive way the public has accepted it. “Local government really moved with their feet, and it was very powerful. It was a movement rather than a law, and we have never looked back,” he said. “It would be unthinkable to turn back the clock now to the days of smoke-filled pubs, restaurants and other public places.

“I have also been amazed by the level of support for the legislation by younger people. We conducted some polls with pupils in secondary schools around Leigh at the time and they seemed to realise the benefits of not smoking in public places. We should always keep in mind that public health policies can have most resonance with young people.”

He believes there is still much to be done to convince youngsters not to take up smoking, but it was important to look to the start of the decade to see how much had altered since the introduction of the new tobacco policy.

“It has completely changed people’s attitudes, to the point where the public entirely supports measures to reduce exposure of children to both smoke and to tobacco promotion. It has been a huge culture change,” he said, adding that the next step by the government would be a ban on retail displays of tobacco.

“This very much has children at heart as it sometimes seems like an Aladdin’s cave behind the till, where the items are all in colourful packaging.”

The move is controversial, and some smaller shopkeepers are still unhappy about it, but Mr Burnham said: “This will further reduce children’s exposure to tobacco so I make no apologies for it.”

The minister paid tribute to Makerfield MP Ian McCartney for another important measure in the proposed bill, the banning of tobacco vending machines.

“The government wasn’t, initially, going to go this far,” said Mr Burnham. But the minister pushed for the move.

The British Heart Foundation estimates that about 17 per cent of cigarettes bought by younger people come from vending machines. “If you look across Greater Manchester, there are still pubs and clubs that have vending machines by the toilets. It is a very easy way for youngsters to obtain cigarettes, by just nipping in and out,” he said.

Health and fitness is something Mr Burnham practises as well as preaches. He plays football and goes jogging around Haydock Park racecourse while his children ride their bikes: “My son also sometimes jogs with me – all three children are very keen on sport and do a huge range in and out of school, including swimming.” When he was putting through a government scheme which offers free swimming at most local authority pools to the over-60s and under-16s, he realised it was one of the only sports that families could do together, “Which is a great thing – it keeps everyone active, boys and girls as well as parents and grandparents”.

Mr Burnham added that there are spending constraints, but he is examining further ways to remove barriers to exercise, allowing even more people easier and cheaper access.

He sais he had been speaking to a group of young advisers in Heywood, who suggested raising the age for free swimming from 16 to 19 and adding free gym membership to get more young people continuing in exercise.

“In this Olympic era especially, for a country so interested in sport, Britain’s physical activity rates are

way too low,” added Mr Burnham.

“In the European league table, we are down in the relegation zone, but it wouldn’t cost that much to move Britain to the top of the table just by giving people incentives to do more exercise. The savings to the country, in the longer term, would also be enormous.”

He said the Change4Life campaign had certainly “caught the mood” and he intends to extend it to specific activities, including Dance4Life, Swim4Life, Bike4Life and Cook4Life. Mr Burnham is also looking at possible co-operation with the USA, where First Lady Michelle Obama’s campaign to tackle childhood obesity is having an effect, to see if the government can take Change4Life further. He said: “It’s very satisfying to prove wrong all those who said there was no point in spending money to try to get people to do something about their lifestyles because it would never work and nobody would listen.

“The changes are beginning to have an impact – there is now a healthy future ahead.”