MPs launch anti-smacking campaign

A cross-party group of MPs is set to launch a new campaign to ban smacking.

MPs led by Commons health committee chairman Kevin Barron have tabled an amendment to the Children and Young Persons Bill, to be debated in the Commons tomorrow.

Campaigners from the Children Are Unbeatable alliance said that 111 Labour MPs have demanded a free vote on the issue.

They are calling for legislation to abolish the "reasonable punishment" defence and argue that children should be given the same protection against assault as adults.

"We must act now to end the legal approval of hitting children," Barron said.

"It is the responsibility of Parliament to ensure that the physical integrity and human dignity of every person is respected.

"The current law allowing so-called 'reasonable punishment' of children is unjust, unsafe and unclear, and must be abolished once and for all."

Sir William Utting, a spokesman for the Alliance, said: "This is one of those principled reforms on which politicians must make a stand whatever the pollsters might say.

"It is about being serious about equality and about the human rights of the child. The law must send the clear message that hitting children is as unacceptable as hitting anyone else."

The sponsors of the amendment are Labour's Barron and Julie Morgan; Conservative MP John Bercow; Liberal Democrat MP Annette Brooke; Plaid Cymru's Elfyn Llwyd and Independent MP Richard Taylor.