SMOKING suffered a massive blow last night when MPs voted to outlaw lighting up in all pubs and clubs.

In the House of Commons nearly 400 MPs voted to stub out smoking in all establishments by summer 2007.

The Cabinet had originally proposed barring smoking only in pubs serving food, in line with Labour's election manifesto.

But a free vote was offered after many Labour MPs, fearing a partial ban could increase health inequalities among customers and staff, threatened to rebel.

Ministers came up with three choices: a total ban; exempting private clubs; or exempting clubs and pubs not serving food.

But MPs overwhelmingly voted for a complete ban with Prime Minister Tony Blair and Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt effectively voting against their own policy.

Colne Valley MP Kali Mountford was the only MP in Yorkshire to vote against a total ban on smoking.

Ms Mountford said she came to the decision to exclude private clubs, such as WMCs, after speaking to constituents.

She said: "I expected myself to want a total ban having never been a smoker but I wanted to know what people in the Colne Valley thought.

"Obviously some people wanted a ban but of the 33 clubs in the valley 32 could be adapted to provide a bar which is separated from a smoking room.

"I was told some of the people who go these clubs are in their 70s and have been going for years and for some this is their only social interaction. Should they be denied this right?"

Ms Mountford said if smoking was legal then smokers should have rights.

She added: "I have come to the view that if this is what we want to do then we should just make smoking illegal and do it honestly."

In the Commons votes, MPs first ended an exemption for pubs not serving food by 453 votes to 125, a majority of 328, and then to extend the ban to private clubs by 384 votes to 184, a majority of 200.

Yorkshire Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) spokesman David Reed, of Huddersfield, said he was overwhelmed.

He added: "The first thing you have to think about is thousands of people who work in pubs and clubs and who have to put up with other people's smoke to earn their pay.

"That will now stop.

"As a side effect government figures say hundreds of thousands of people will stop smoking."

But smokers' lobby group Forest condemned the MPs' decision saying it ignored public opinion and denied freedom of choice to millions.

Director Simon Clark said: "The Government should educate people about the health risks of smoking but politicians have no right to force people to quit by making it physically more difficult to consume a legal product."

Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman, a long-term campaigner for smoke-free workplaces, said today it had been a historic vote. "Within a very short time, people will understand what a major step forward it has been," he said.

He said during the debate: "We will from now start a new culture in our country in which people realise that smoking kills them, or seriously affects their health."