One Rule For Them… Public Banned From Smoking Indoors but Govt Minister Gets Private Smoking Room at Department

Governments worldwide may be trying to stub out the habit, but the British government has paid for a private rooftop smoking room so one top politician can puff in peace.

A special room for smoking, alternatively described as a hut or den, has been built on the roof of a government building in Westminster so top Conservative Michael Gove can have a cigarette without interacting with the public. This is apparently in response to his habit of popping out of the office for a smoke — the tightly-packed buildings in Whitehall and Westminster don’t typically have private garden space — which is now considered a security risk.

While reporting on the erection of the smoker’s salon on the Home Office roof has focussed on Gove’s recent interaction with anti-lockdown protesters who heckled him as he walked through Westminster, perhaps also important is the revelation the terrorist who killed fellow Conservative member of parliament David Amess had intended to kill Gove as well.

It was revealed during the trial of Ali Harbi Ali that he had visited the home of Mr Gove on several occasions in 2021 and intended to murder him while he was out running.

A report in The Sun notes the “secure” smoking area was provided “on the strong advice of police and security officials after Gove was harassed by the anti-vax protesters threatening to hang him and following the discovery that David Amess’s killer… had visited Gove’s home on five occasions with a knife”.

Smoking indoors in places of work was banned in the United Kingdom, as it is across most of Europe, in 2007. There are minor exceptions for smoking in bus-shelter like enclosures which can protect from the rain but otherwise must remain open to the elements.

Mr Gove is not the only politician by far to use taxpayers’ money to sustain his habit while pushing bans on the public. Inside the European Union’s own parliament, despite the ban on smoking indoors, members have the use of private smoking rooms, a privilege not afforded otherwise to the public. Indeed in Belgium — the home of the European Parliament — smoking outdoors is even being banned, and in France smoking is banned indoors and even outdoor railway stations ban tobacco.