Cabinet ministers should be allowed to campaign for a British exit from the European Union even if that means opposing David Cameron's view, a poll has found.
Ahead of the Tory party conference, the Survation/Huffington Post UK poll found that 55% of Britons think that ministers should be free to lobby for whichever side they choose, while just a quarter of those surveyed believed that frontbenchers had a duty to stick to the government line.
The survey also found that 27% of voters think the Government's tax credit cuts make them less likely to vote Tory in 2020 while just 14% said the policy would make them more likely to vote Conservative.
The Prime Minister has come under pressure to allow his top team to campaign for a Brexit even if he recommends a vote to remain in the EU at the referendum promised by the end of 2017.
In June, London Mayor Boris Johnson, a member of the Prime Minister's political Cabinet, said it would "probably be safer and more harmonious" for Mr Cameron to allow ministers to campaign on the opposing side.
The Survation study found more than a third of voters believe Mr Cameron should quit as PM if the UK votes to leave the EU, although 40% think that he should stay in post whatever the outcome.
The poll also found that 65% of voters felt Government cuts had affected them personally, either a lot (23%) or a little (42%). Just 35% felt that cuts had not affected their families.
More than a quarter of voters said they would personally be affected by cuts to working tax credits specifically, with 20% of Tory voters affected either a lot or a little.
:: Survation questioned 1,008 people on September 21 and 22.