Mike Oldfield quits 'prep school Britain' over smoking ban

The multi-millionaire is selling his £3.5million Gloucestershire mansion and has moved to Spain, where he says people have more freedom.

He said Britain had become too strict, with its "ludicrous" emphasis on health-and-safety rules and the increased use of CCTV and speed cameras.

Home truths: Mike Oldfield outside the mansion he is selling

The 54-year-old musician told The Mail on Sunday: "I went to a very strict prep school. You were so restricted. It was one of the worst times in my life.

"Britain has been getting more and more like that, what with this health-and-safety business.

"In my local town, Thornbury, the old man who runs the hardware shop has to sneak out to the backyard to have a cigarette. What's the harm in him being in the office in the back of his shop?"

The musician, whose haunting 1973 album made him a star and helped establish Richard Branson's Virgin Records, has smoked Old Holborn roll-ups for decades.

"It is too intrusive," he said. "Imagine if Winston Churchill was given a £50 fine for smoking his cigar. He would never have stood for it.

"I don't want to live in a country where a little old lady has to wear a hard hat and a luminous vest just to look after the village green.

"It's ludicrous. I had some window cleaners come to my house and they showed me a contract ten pages long full of health-and-safety stuff.

"It seems we have lost our freedom. It's just the thought that someone lighting up a harmless roll-up could be fined. I haven't seen any cameras in Spain and you can smoke where you like."

Although Spain did introduce a smoking ban in workplaces last year, cigarettes are allowed in sectioned-off areas of large bars and restaurants, as well as in smaller establishments that choose to allow smoking.

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"Where I live in Spain, there are about 100 children who come out late on a Friday night and hang out," Oldfield added. "There's lots of laughter and noise, but no fighting, no drunken violence, no police sirens. I'm not whingeing - it is just a fact of life that the old Great Britain is gone."

The composer, who was born in Reading, admitted: "I will miss the beautiful seasons - the autumn colours and the spring flowers."

Oldfield has put his stunning nine-bedroom mansion, which has a 54-acre estate - including two swimming pools and its own fishing lake - on the market with estate agent Savills for £3.5million.

He has lived in the 19th-century home, which has sweeping views across the River Severn to Wales, with his wife Fanny, whom he met in Ibiza, and their son, Jake, three, for two years.