NORTH-EAST MP, Alex Cunningham, has said he is “overjoyed” that MPs have given overwhelming support to his long-running campaign for a smoking ban in cars when children are present.

The Stockton North MP has spent the last three years trying to get a law on the statute book.

After MPs voted 376 to 107 for an amendment to the Children and Families Bill on Monday night the Stockton North MP said: “I am overjoyed that members were finally granted the opportunity to have their say on such an important issue of child protection.

Although there is still work to do before the proposal becomes law the MP said the Commons vote - following an earlier vote in the House of Lords in favour of a ban – was “a very big stride towards bringing an end to a detestable habit.”

The Government now needs to bring forward secondary legislation to implement the ban.

The Labour MP, who has campaigned on the issue since June 2011 said: “As many as 185,000 children are exposed to cigarette smoke in their family cars on a daily or almost-daily basis.

“With passive smoking particularly harmful to children, given their quicker respiration rates, smaller airways, less mature immune systems, and greater absorption of pollutants, we have a recipe for a preventable public health time bomb.”

MPs also voted in favour of standard packaging for tobacco products but again more details have to be brought forward by the Government before the measures are implemented.

Ailsa Rutter, director of the Fresh, the County Durham-based tobacco control campaign group, said: "MPs from all parties deserve massive credit for putting children's health first today - now and in the future. There is massive public support for protecting our children from smoking and today is a victory for children's health.”