Callum Best has made an appeal to Jeremy Hunt to support The National Association for Children of Alcoholics and other charities with funding.
Best, who is the son of former footballing star George Best, told GB News' The Camilla Tominey Show that he wanted to meet the Chancellor of the Exchequer to discuss how to better support the charity and the children they help.
Camilla Tominey said: "What happened was Jeremy Hunt, when he was health secretary he set aside the £6 million.
"It was to go to a lot of different charities and I think Nacoa got about 300,000 for their helpline.
Callum Best has been a patron for Nacoa UK for 16 years
GB News
"What we've subsequently seen is the calls rise, I think they've quadrupled to the helpline during lockdown because what happened was children were at home with their alcoholic parents with nowhere to turn.
"They couldn't go to school. They were in lockdown with problem-drinking parents, now we understand there's no strategy for these children and no money.
"What's your reaction to that?"
Best replied: "Well, as you said there, I think every year Nacoa gets 30,000 calls and there are 2.6 million children out there struggling with parental drinking at home from lockdown.
"They saw an increase in troubles at home and an increase in all sorts of badness towards these kids that are struggling with it.
"I feel that now we're grateful to Jeremy Hunt because at one point they allocated some funds to go towards these different charities.
"There's Nacoa, there's many other charities out there that deal with the same, but I speak on behalf of Nacoa, one of the leading charities in the UK.
"The reason I'm on this platform [is] I feel that if I can use this platform to reach out to Jeremy Hunt, very politely and respectfully, to just say I would love to meet you, I would love to work together to provide help for these children again because the funds were in place and then they were taken away and there's no reason they can't come back around and we can't provide funding.
Jeremy Hunt is the Chancellor of the Exchequer
Jordan Pettitt
"To help these children know that they're not alone, 2.6 million kids out there know that they have nowhere to turn to. They don't even know Nacoa exists.
"They don't even know there are people like us. There's the backing of MP Jonathan Ashworth, there's MP Liam Byrne, and then there are hundreds if not thousands of supporters of the charity that all are on this cause together.
"And I feel that if I can get together with Jeremy Hunt, with the help of yourself as well, we can provide funding to make sure these kids live a happier and healthier life and also just to confirm the importance of support groups like that, charity and others."
