Selby’S MP is one of 53 coalition politicians lobbying the Government to reconsider the current restrictions on cigarette displays in shops.

Nigel Adams, the MP for Selby and Ainsty, has signed an open letter asking the Government to look again at a ban due next year to stop retailers displaying cigarettes and only selling tobacco products from under the counter.

Supporters claim the ban, proposed by Labour in 2008, will reduce smoking and improve children’s health by reducing their exposure to tobacco products.

But the letter argues that the ban on displaying tobacco products will disadvantage small shops, that there is no evidence available to prove the ban would reduce smoking, and that it has no public support.

Mr Adams said: “I understand the health issue but this legislation could have a damaging effect on small retailers in particular and a broad-brush law could affect these small businesses in an adverse way at a time when it is economically difficult enough.”

Conservative MP Mike Penning, a transport minister and former shadow health minister, is also quoted in the letter as saying: “I have looked long and hard for evidence from around the world that the Government’s proposals (to ban displays at the point of sale), are sufficiently evidence-based, but I do not think that they are.”