David Cameron has suffered a sharp drop in public approval ratings since becoming the UK’s Conservative leader, mirroring the slide in popularity suffered by his predecessors who took the party to three successive general election defeats, an opinion poll for the FT has shown.

In a double blow for the UK opposition, the Ipsos MORI survey also shows the party lagging two percentage points behind Tony Blair’s Labour government among the 56 per cent saying they are certain to vote, with the Conservatives on 35 per cent to Labour’s 37 per cent.