A food-based smoking ban in pubs would be a nonsense which would be unlikely to last, the head of Birmingham's Mitchells & Butlers has said.

Chief executive Tim Clarke spoke out as it was revealed MPs are to be given three options in a free vote on smoking in licensed premises expected later this month.

They will have the choice between the Government's original proposals - exempting pubs which did not serve food and all private membership clubs - a blanket ban, or an exemption for membership clubs only.

Ahead of the company's annual meeting yesterday Mitchells called for a full smoking ban to "create a level playing field" for all operators.

The company believes a ban on smoking in just food areas would encourage large numbers of pubs - mostly in less affluent areas - to revert to a smoking and drinking offer only.

Mr Clarke told The Birmingham Post: "We oppose the nonsense of a food-based ban, we don't think it would last."

He has previously suggested around 400 of Mitchells' pubs, where food forms a lower part of the sales mix, could be shifted to all-out drinking venues.

He said: "We believe that the level playing field of a full ban would be much the better of the two alternatives, rather than an unworkable compromise which has little prospect of a lasting solution,"

And Mr Clarke declined to comment on whether Mitchells would be likely to show an interest in any of an estimated 1,050 former Spirit pubs likely to be sold by Punch Taverns.

Punch bought a 1,800 strong estate and analysts expect it to convert around 750 into managed houses with the rest being sold.

Mitchells, Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries and Greene King were all thought to be interested in buying a number of pubs.

Mr Clarke said Mitchells "remained interested" in topquality pubs.

He said: "If a number of pubs came on the market at the right price we would be interested, but as far as any deal with Punch goes I would rather not comment."

He spoke as the chain revealed it had made the most of extra trading hours to lift like-for-like sales by four per cent in the last four months.

The group, which has 2,000 outlets - including the All Bar One, Harvester, Ember Inns and Toby Carvery chains - said growth benefited from strong trading in the week before and the week after Christmas, while new licensing hours created a "modest uplift".

The company said it remained cautious on the out-look for consumer spending, but added that it was confident of further market share gains.

In residential areas, which account for 70 per cent of business, like-for-like sales were up 4.7 per cent in the 16 weeks to January 21.

On the high street, the figure showed a rise of 2.8 per cent.

Food and drink prices were one per cent higher than a year earlier, but gross margins reduced slightly as food and wine now accounted for 40 per cent of all sales.

The trend, coupled with regulatory and energy costs increases of around £25 million this year, will continue to put pressure on the margins, the company added.

Mitchells has around three per cent of the pubs in the UK with ten per cent of sales in the industry.