Cigarettes will no longer be available over the counter and cigarette vending machines will be outlawed under plans to be announced this week.

Only months after the Government raised the age for buying cigarettes to 18, the Health Secretary said that more anti-smoking measures were likely to be introduced, including banning packets of ten.

Alan Johnson said that packs of ten Woodbines had encouraged him to start smoking when young. He backed plans to enforce nationwide the decision in Scotland to force cigarettes “under the counter”. Speaking on Sunday AM on BBC One, he said: “I think they [the Scottish] are right to do that and indeed we are considering that as well. We will launch a consultation document on that next week.”

He said that many European countries had banned vending machines, with “startling” results. “Whether you should still be able to buy ten cigarettes or whether you should insist you can only buy 20 is an issue we need to look very closely at,” he said.

He also gave a broad hint that the price of alcohol would rise: “The instinctive reaction . . . is that if you’re selling lager at less than . . . mineral water, then that’s wrong.”

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