PRIME Minister David Cameron will be asked to think again on the minimum alcohol unit pricing by county councillors in Lancashire.

Public health campaigners insist the cost of alcohol abuse to the county – from the NHS to work-related and policing costs – is £663million a year.

County councillor Azhar Ali, who represents Nelson South, is behind a call to ask Whitehall to consider introducing a minimum 50 pence a unit policy.

But opponents have accused the Labour authority of supporting a ‘nanny state’ and a ‘misguided moral crusade’, after the government shelved such proposals on Wednesday.

Coun Ali, who is the county council cabinet member for health and wellbeing, said: “One of the things we can do to prevent binge drinking is to go down this particular route.”

He told county councillors that alcohol-related admissions across the county topped 32,000 – and for East Lancashire alone was 12,500.

The county council will now seek to work with Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool councils, and Lancashire’s MPs, in a bid to put the issue back on the agenda.

Serious concerns were raised about the issue of young drinkers ‘pre-fuelling’, purchasing cheaper alcohol from off licences or supermarkets before attending pubs and clubs.

But county councillor Michael Green said he feared the plans would just come across as a ‘misguided moral crusade against drinking’.

County councillor Matthew Tomlinson said he hoped the move would bring an end to ‘two for one’ shot offers and other promotions which encouraged binge drinking.