Charles Kennedy, the former Liberal Democrat leader, has become the first high profile figure to fall foul of the ban on smoking in England after he was caught puffing on a cigarette during a train journey.

Mr Kennedy was discovered leaning out of the window to exhale smoke during a journey from Plymouth to Paddington this morning, apparently believing that by doing so he would not contravene the no-smoking law that took effect last weekend.

Police were eventually called after Mr Kennedy, in true liberal fashion, refused to stop smoking from his vantage point at the window, despite having been advised by train staff that a no smoking rule was in operation.

The train manager on the 11.05 service alerted British Transport Police, whose officers met the train on arrival. Mr Kennedy was “spoken to and given some advice” but he was not arrested.

British Transport Police would not confirm the identity of the passenger concerned but said the matter was “resolved informally”.

The episode astonished friends of the Lib Dem leader, who was forced to quit in January last year after being confronted by his MPs about a long-standing drink problem, which he has spent the intervening months trying to conquer. There are mixed reports about his success in doing so.

Last month he failed to show up at a public speaking engagement at a tourism conference in the Canary Islands when he missed his first flight and then went to the wrong airport to catch a second.

Mr Kennedy, who used to smoke a packet and a half a day of Silk Cut Silvers, has battled for much longer to give up his addiction to cigarettes. As a young MP he gave up smoking several times only to find cartoonists and commentators highlighting extra weight he would put on from comfort eating.

As a Scot he should be well versed in the restrictions imposed by smoking bans, after the Scottish Parliament banned smoking in public places well ahead of England, in March 2006.

As a seasoned rail traveller he would also be wearingly familiar with the no smoking policies introduced by many train operating companies in England several years ago.

Friends described to The Times how train journeys with Mr Kennedy would be nerve-wracking affairs due to his habit of alighting at stations on the way for a crafty puff on the platform, leading to frequent panics that the train might depart without him.

As a Liberal Democrat he should have no objection in principle to a smoking ban. His party was ahead of Labour in changing its policy to call for a ban on smoking in public places at its spring conference at Southport in 2004.

Unfortunately for Mr Kennedy, as delegates on the conference hall ernestly debated John Stuart Mill’s thoughts on balancing individual freedom with limiting the freedom of others to justify a smoking ban, Mr Kennedy spent most of the weekend flat on his back in his hotel room amid lurid headlines about a mysterious crisis in his health.

He vowed repeatedly to give up smoking, including during the 2001 general election campaign, ahead of his wedding the following year, and before the birth of his first child in 2005 when his wife Sarah banned him from smoking in their house, forcing him to retreat to the garden each time he wanted a cigarette.

On resigning as Lib Dem leader he moved to a Commons office in Portcullis House, the modern parliamentary office building where a no smoking policy predated last week’s ban.

One friend said: “He smokes much less now than he used to: the opportunities to smoke are just not there.” ends “Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail” The Newspaper Marketing Agency: Opening Up Newspapers:

Times Recommends

• Times Christmas appeal: Letter from the Editor
• Conferences — what a waste of money
• Schools supremo learns a painful lesson