The pub smoking ban continues to divide opinion, according to a new poll published today.

A survey of over 2,000 adults commissioned by the smokers’ rights group Forest and conducted by Yonder Consulting, found that:

35% of respondents think pubs and private members’ clubs, including working men’s clubs, should be allowed to provide a well-ventilated designated smoking room to accommodate smokers, 51% think they should not be allowed, and 15% said ‘don’t know’.

The poll was conducted following a recent pledge by Rupert Lowe MP that a Restore Britain government would allow indoor smoking rooms in pubs.

Simon Clark, director of Forest, said:

“It’s remarkable that almost two decades after smoking was banned in enclosed public places in England, more than a third of respondents still support designated smoking rooms in pubs and clubs, and only half are opposed to the idea.”

He added:

“Andy Burnham says he wants to help save Britain’s pubs. One way he could do that would be to amend the smoking ban and permit separate smoking rooms in pubs and clubs.

“The pubs hardest hit by the smoking ban were urban working class boozers that had no outdoor space.

“It’s too late to save the thousands of pubs and bars that closed in the wake of the ban, but amending the legislation to allow separate smoking rooms might help some that are still in business but struggling.

“At the very least, proprietors should be allowed to provide comfortable outdoor smoking rooms that are fully enclosed and not 50 per cent open to the wind and rain.

“In the words of the late, great artist David Hockney, ‘Pubs aren’t health clubs’, and nor should they be.”