Rebel MPs seek full ban

The government is facing increasing pressure from its own MPs to ditch plans for a partial smoking ban and bring in a full ban.

Labour is currently set to introduce a ban in mid-2007 with exemptions for pubs that do not serve food and private members' clubs.

But reports suggest senior Labour MPs are plotting an ambush to defeat Tony Blair's plans for a partial ban.

Kevin Barron, the Labour chairman of the Commons Select Committee on Health, is believed to be planning to table an amendment to the Health Bill, which will go through its final stages in the Commons this month.

Last month the health committee report branded the current proposal as "unfair, unjust, unworkable and illogical."

Mr Barron is hoping to obtain a free vote, instead of being forced along with his rebel Labour colleagues to vote for a partial ban.

So far 101 MPs, including 69 of them Labour, have signed a Commons motion calling for a free vote on the issue.

A recent survey carried out for Cancer Research UK and anti-smoking lobby group ASH claimed that 66 per cent of people in England now back a smoking ban in pubs - up from 51 per cent in April 2004.

But Tony Payne chief executive of the Federation of Licensed Victuallers' Association said he had not given up hope of a compromise.

"We have written to every MP in the country and as far as we are concerned we are still fighting the corner," he said.

"We feel that rural pubs that will be badly hit by a ban should be offered a compromise. And why should clubs be exempt?"

However Becky Salisbury, licensee at the Alford Arms, in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire believes a full ban is on the horizon. "It's inevitable," she said.

"There are obviously financial implications, but for the trade the biggest thing is to protect out staff and this is the only way of ensuring there is a level playing field."