AN MP for East Yorkshire is holding talks which could see smoking allowed in working men’s clubs.

Greg Knight MP is meeting with club members to discuss an amendment to the ban which could see a smoking room introduced at clubs – many of which say they have suffered financially as a result of 2007’s smoking ban.

Mr Knight will be joined by MPs Roger Godsiff and John Hemming to host a reception on June 29 at the House of Commons for the Club and Institute Union’s “save our pubs and clubs” campaign.

Campaigners want to lobby parliament for a review of the ban which would give clubs the choice of having a ventilated smoking room and would relax regulations on outdoor smoking shelters.

Writing in The Club and Institute Journal, Mr Knight said: “Anti-smokers… parrot out the phrase ‘no-one wants to go back to the old days of smoke filled pubs and clubs.’

“Well, no-one is suggesting that we do go back, but what the reasonable and less fanatical among us are suggesting is that there be a dedicated inside room for smoking, if that is what pub customers and club members want.

“I do not accept the argument that modern ventilating machines cannot deal with the smoke.”

The campaign has been supported by John Lane, the secretary of Acomb WMC, who said that while he backed the ban he thought smokers should be allowed a designated room.

He said: “The way they have done the ban is outrageous. Some of our members are 90 years of age. It’s unrealistic that they should have to go out in the cold to smoke.

“I would not think anybody would object to an amendment.”