A Labour MP is set to launch a bid to ban parents from smacking their children.

David Hinchliffe, the chairman of the health select committee, will focus on the issue during a 10-minute rule bill in the Commons.

He wants to abolish the legal defence from parents' of smacking their children as "reasonable chastisement".

Hinchliffe said his bill would simply bring Britain in line with other European countries and lead to a dramatic reduction in child abuse.

"Other countries that have banned smacking have seen a significant reduction in child abuse," he said.

"In Sweden, not one child has died at the hands of a parent or carer over the last 10 years, compared with at least one a week in this country."

The Wakefield MP, who spent 19 years as a social worker, defended his decision arguing the exercise was about tightening domestic violence laws rather than infringing on parents' rights.

"The current law discriminates against children because it gives them lesser rights than adults when faced with domestic violence," he said.

"The defence of reasonable chastisement results in significant numbers of children being unprotected. It is used successfully when child protection agencies intervene."

"I worked in child protection for 20 years before becoming an MP and I have personal experience on more than one occasion of losing court proceedings against parents using this defence when there was solid evidence of abuse."

He accepted that the 10-minute rule bill process meant it was unlikely that immediate progress would be made on the issue.

But he said it would put pressure on the government to bring the issue up the political agenda.

But the new minister for children Margaret Hodge has dismissed calls for a ban.

"In my view it would be wonderful if parents didn't smack, but - being one who in my time has smacked - I couldn't preach what I didn't do," she said.

The latest move by the senior Labour MP adds momentum to an issue that is gathering significant support among MPs.

At their recent party conference, the Liberal Democrats voted to make a smacking ban official policy.

The party's spokesman for children's issues Paul Burstow came in for heavy media criticism for proposals similar to those made by Hinchliffe.

"We must generate a climate where people know it is wrong to hit children and the law should say so," Burstow said.

"Some people fear this will open the floodgates to children taking their mums and dads to court.

"The UK is not so different from the 10 European countries that already have similar laws. The floodgates have not opened."

And child welfare campaigners say action from the government was long overdue.

"It is a year since the UN shamed the UK for its record on child abuse deaths," said Liz Atkins of the NSPCC.

"But we are far short of a fully-fledged strategy which would meet the NSPCC's call to cut the deaths by half in 10 years.

"The number of children killed in this country has remained the same for 30 years and there are no signs yet of this going down."