Tory rating highest since Thatcher

The Ipsos MORI survey, released through the Press Association, put the Tories on 52% - up four points since a similar poll last month - among those certain to vote, with Labour unchanged on 24% and the Liberal Democrats down four to 12%.

The 28-point Conservative lead and the party's share of voting intentions are the highest ever recorded by Ipsos MORI. The last time the Tories hit the halfway mark in any poll was in August 1988, a year after Lady Thatcher's third general election win.

The company's monthly Political Monitor, taken over the opening weekend of the Liberal Democrat conference in Bournemouth, was bad news for leader Nick Clegg, suggesting that his party is being squeezed out by the Government's unpopularity and growing enthusiasm for the Tories.

David Cameron's party was rated ahead of Labour on a range of key characteristics, with respondents saying the Tories have the best team of leaders (38% to Labour's 20%) and best understand the economic problems facing Britain (36% to Labour's 27%).

Labour was thought more likely than the Tories to "promise anything to win votes", by a margin of 40% to 36%. And 54% of those questioned agreed that Mr Cameron's party was ready to form the next Government - up 19 points since last month.

Some 76% said they were dissatisfied with the way the Government was running the country and 69% were dissatisfied with Mr Brown's own performance, compared to just 24% who said they were satisfied with him.

But in better news for the Prime Minister, more than half of those questioned (51%) agreed that Mr Brown was "doing a reasonable job in difficult circumstances", suggesting that the electorate has accepted to a degree his argument that the UK's economic woes are being driven by international factors and not home-grown failings.

Those taking part were gloomy about Britain's economic prospects over the coming year, with 70% expecting conditions to get worse, against 12% who thought they would get better and 16% thought they would stay the same.

Some 63% of respondents agreed with Mr Cameron's description of British society as "broken" - a claim which has come under assault from Labour in recent weeks - and 49% said that the Tory leader was representative of modern Britain, against 36% who said he was not.