SOME of Britain’s leading artists, playwrights and entrepreneurs have launched a fierce attack on the Government over plans to introduce a ban on smoking in public places.

Celebrity supporters of the pro-smoking lobby say that there is a “climate of hysteria” around the issue of smoking in public and that the risks of passive smoking have been exaggerated.

In a letter to The Times, a host of well-known names including the actor and writer Stephen Fry, Bob Geldof, the pop music entrepreneur Simon Cowell and the artists David Hockney and Maggi Hambling, called on the Government to “de-escalate the tension on this issue”.

They said: “To smoke, to associate with smokers, or to operate a venue in which smoking is allowed should all be matters for individual choice. Smoking is legal, and in pubs and clubs, it’s fanatical smoke-haters who are the minority.”

John Reid, the Health Secretary, confirmed this week that the Government will introduce laws restricting smoking in public places.

Although officials emphasised that no decision had been made, the Government’s White Paper on public health to be published this autumn is likely to propose legislation against smoking in pubs, restaurants and workplaces.

The musician Joe Jackson, who signed today’s letter, said that anti-smoking groups represented a “fanatical fringe”.

He said: “There are those of us who are sick and tired of being abused for indulging in a legal pleasure. We feel that a smoking ban is unjustified.

“David Hockney said to me that people are like sheep and follow whoever shouts loudest. So we are going to make some noise too.”

Other signatories are Trevor Bayliss, who brought the world the clockwork radio; Felix Dennis, the magazine magnate, the playwrights Simon Gray and Ronald Harwood and the celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson.

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