Health chiefs say move to extend smoke-free places - including outside hospitals - would protect vulnerable people from breathing in second-hand smoke.
The US health secretary made the confession to podcaster Theo Von during an episode of his show, This Past Weekend, as he opened up about his past drug use.
Record-breaking amounts of rain have fallen in some areas already this year, but the dreary conditions are set to give way to sunshine for much of the UK tomorrow.
The Labour peer said Peter Mandelson would not have been made US ambassador if a woman had been in the room, and called for "culture change across government".