Health officials are to launch the first television campaign urging women to go for cervical smear tests amid warnings too many are “needlessly dying” after failing to get checked.

Uptake of screening is now at a record low, with almost one in three women eligible for tests failing to do so, latest records show.

The lowest uptake is among women in their late 20s, with almost four in ten failing to have smears, the figures show.

Two women every day in England die from cervical cancer and more than 200,000 women every year are diagnosed with abnormal cell changes that could lead to the disease.

The proportion of women aged 25 to 64 who go for smear tests is currently at a 20-year low, with take up at 71.4 per cent.