Gordon Brown has rejected a proposal by his top medical adviser for a minimum price of alcohol to tackle binge drinking. The Prime Minister acted after newspapers published details of Sir Liam Donaldson, the Chief Medical Officer’s, plan, which could result in every can of beer costing at least £1 and a bottle of wine a minimum of £4.

The Department of Health gave the idea a fair wind initially, saying that nothing was ruled out and pointing out that Sir Liam had been one of the earliest proponents of a ban on smoking in public places.

Mr Brown made plain that the idea, which would fix prices at no less than 50p per unit of alcohol, was a non-starter. “I do not think this is where we are going,” said a source close to the Prime Minister. “The majority of sensible drinkers should not have to pay the price for the irresponsible and excessive drinking by a small minority.”

That line was repeated by James Purnell, the Work and Pensions Secretary. “We want to focus on the irresponsible minority rather than I think punishing everyone equally. Clearly we will look at Liam Donaldson’s proposals; he’s a very eminent person in his field,” he told BBC One’s The Politics Show. “But we are very clear we don’t want to punish the majority for the sins of the minority. I think certainly at a time of economic difficulty that looks like it would be the effect.”

Department of Health sources said that it would have come to the same conclusion as Mr Brown but would have preferred to see Sir Liam’s ideas debated. “There is no split on the policy,” an insider said, “but the truth is, this policy was made this morning in Downing Street. That is their right. They are in charge.”

Other Whitehall sources denied that the department’s approach suggested a split with No 10. “The Health Department has to be diplomatic about this and dealing with Sir Liam. It’s easier for No 10 to knock it.”

The Conservatives were equally unenthusiastic about raising prices. Andrew Lansley, Shadow Health Secretary, said: “There is clearly a need for action. But it is very important to recognise that we need to deal with people’s attitudes and not just the supply and price of alcohol.”

He said that Conservative proposals, which include measures to tackle loss-leader promotions and higher taxes on high-alcohol drinks aimed at young people, would address this without penalising the majority of moderate drinkers. “This would seem to be a much better route to go down than distorting the whole drinks market, which in any case may not be legal.”

The Liberal Democrat culture, media and sport spokesman Don Foster backed Sir Liam’s call. “The Liberal Democrats have long argued that the ridiculously cheap below-cost price of alcohol in some of our supermarkets and off-licences is a key contributor to the problem of binge drinking,” he said. “There is clear research showing that putting an end to pocket money-priced alcohol will influence drinking behaviour. While more work needs to be done on the details, we welcome Sir Liam’s intervention and hope that the Government will act.”

Sir Liam’s proposal would mean most bottles of wine could not be sold for less than £4.50. A Department of Health spokeswoman said that the Government had not ruled out taking action on cheap alcohol.

She said: “It’s clearly linked to people drinking more and the subsequent harm to their health. It would be wrong to make sweeping changes without consideration of all the options suggested by our research published in December.

“We need to do more work on this to make sure any action we take is appropriate, fair and effective. Any decisions we make will take into account their wider economic impact during this difficult time and it would not be right to penalise the overwhelming majority of responsible drinkers.”

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