BRITISH

smokers are puffing on 26 fewer cigarettes every month, on average, due to the cost-of-living crisis.

Eight in ten of a sample of 1,000 smokers said they had cut down to save money. Five per cent had quit.

A pack of 20 cigarettes costs an average of £12.67, according to a recent report. With the average British smoker lighting up 20 times a day, that can add up to about £390 a month.

Some 13.5 per cent of Britons smoke, down from 45 per cent in 1975.