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Smoking Labour voters threaten MPs with backlash
Cigarette ban blamed for choking life out of working men's club
Traditional Labour supporters are threatening to oust Luton's MPs at the next election in protest at the smoking ban.
That was the warning from campaigners at the town centre's CIU working men's club as the site faces tough times.
Sean Spillane, a Labour voter who works at the Arndale-based social club, has lead protests against the ban since private clubs were first included.
He said Margaret Moran MP and Kelvin Hopkins MP stood to lose their seats as core voters punished them for supporting an all-out ban and damaging a way of life.
"The local Labour Party should be worried because traditional voters have already left," he said.
"People like me will deliberately not vote for the Tories but several people have said they are going to vote for UKIP (the UK Independence Party)."
The result of the all-out ban, which Mr Spillane said was not in the government's original election manifesto, has been seen as the reason for the demise of many pubs and traditional working class clubs across the UK.
And now the Luton club is facing the possibility of its own closure since members were being forced to walk up two flights of stairs to exit the building and have a cigarette.
He said: "All we want is an indoor smoking room and we just appeal for the members to come and support us."
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Weather for Bedford
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 21 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
