A BAN on smoking in cars with children in them has been hailed a “great victory for public health”.

Dominic Harrison, director of public health at Blackburn with Darwen Council, has welcomed the new legislation, which has been passed in a final vote in the House of Commons.

The law change will come into force in October, after 342 MPs voted in favour compared to just 74 against.

Mr Harrison , who also chairs the Lancashire Directors of Public Health committee, said: “This is a great victory for public health and will make a very significant contribution to the health and wellbeing of children in Blackburn with Darwen.

“The council, along with other local authorities, have lobbied central government hard over the past 18 months to bring forward this legislation which it seems has now had overwhelming support from all political parties.

“Every enclosed shared space should be smoke free for children who have a right to breathe air unpolluted by chemicals that will harm their health. Our borough has relatively high rates of childhood asthma – so this legislation will particularly benefit our children.

“Some people may think that this is an affront to their civil liberties but I think we will look back in 10 years, when this is seen as common sense as wearing seatbelts or not drinking and driving and say – why didn’t we do this earlier?”

Dr Penny Woods, chief executive of the British Lung Foundation, said: “This is a tremendous victory for the half-a-million children being exposed to second-hand smoke in the family car every week in England. Parliament has spoken and we now look forward to the introduction of a ban on smoking in cars with children by October.

“We urge the government to show the same commitment to introduce standardised packaging for all tobacco products, in order to protect the 200,000 children taking up smoking every year in this country.

“We are certain these measures together will prove to be two of the most significant milestones for public health since the smoke-free legislation of 2007.”

However, Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ group Forest, said: “Legislation is excessive. The overwhelming majority of smokers know it’s inconsiderate to smoke in a car with children and they don’t do it. They don’t need the state micro-managing their lives.”