David Cameron moved quickly today to slap down criticism of his leadership style from a former close supporter and to calm Tory ranks after a Times poll showed Labour continuing to enjoy a strong "Brown bounce".

The Populus survey, undertaken over the weekend, puts Labour on 39 per cent support, up two points over the past four weeks and the party's highest level since January 2006. The Conservatives are down a point at 33 per cent, their lowest since November 2005, just before Mr Cameron became leader.

Aside from the bad opinion polls, Mr Cameron has also had to deal with criticism from party members, including an outspoken attack last night from Ali Miraj that he is all "box-ticking and gimmickry".

Mr Miraj, a would-be parliamentary candidate who is on two of the Conservatives' policy review groups, is a former loyalist who introduced Mr Cameron on his campaign launch for the party leadership. Last night he turned on his leader, questioning his decision to visit Rwanda last week while parts of his Oxfordshire constituency were under water.

But today a party spokesman said Mr Miraj had been suspended from the priority list for General Election candidates.

The action came after Mr Miraj told the BBC: “I’m disillusioned because I think substance has been replaced by PR. What I’m asking for is some substance and some credibility and not box-ticking and gimmickry. People have had enough of Tony Blair for 10 years. They don’t want another Tony Blair.

“The contrast is with Gordon Brown. David Cameron in my view has got substance, somewhere in there, but I’m afraid that in recent weeks, that has been taken over by PR. What I want to see is that balance redressed so that we can have a decent chance of winning the next election and if present form continues, we certainly won’t.”

The Tory leader had earlier told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Mr Miraj had come to his office yesterday and asked to be given a peerage.

“I think listeners will draw their own conclusions about someone who one day asks for a peerage, to be elevated to the House of Lords, and the next minute launches a great attack on the leader of the Conservative Party,” he said.

Later Mr Miraj countered Mr Cameron's attack by claiming the leader had 'smeared' him.

He said: “Instead of engaging with the actual significant points I was making, he is trying to smear me now, which in my view is very, very disappointing and smacks of a complete lack of integrity.

“I actually care about this party and that’s why I felt I had to speak out. To be honest with you, a peerage is neither here nor there.”

Mr Cameron said that he was not surprised by recent polls and vowed to continue with his modernisation of the party.

“A new Prime Minister is going to get a honeymoon and a bounce in the polls, I fully predicted and expected that, but I don’t believe that the fundamentals have changed," he said.

“When you look at the fundamentals, what’s going wrong in our NHS, the fact that there isn’t proper discipline in schools, the fact that the Government said ’we would give you a referendum on Europe’ and now won’t.

“When you look at the fundamentals I don’t think we are seeing real change in this Government and I don’t think Gordon Brown can be the change the country needs.”

Mr Cameron’s decision to visit Rwanda during last week's appears to have especially disappointed voters. According to the Times poll, voters rated Mr Cameron’s handling of the flooding at an average of 3.75 out of 10, against 5.05 for Mr Brown and 5.94 for the much-criticised Environment Agency.

The Tory leader was criticised on Sunday by the former frontbencher Graham Brady, who said that the party was failing to win over voters outside London. Mr Cameron said May’s local election results showed that was not true and added: “When we campaign in the centre ground we win.”

He added: “When you make changes to the party as I have done, when you put it in the centre ground, when you change the policy on the NHS and say it there for everyone not opt-outs for a few, when you are as clear as I am that you have got to have economic stability before tax cuts, not everyone is going to agree.

“But the fact is the party has moved on, we are back in touch with the British people and those people, and there are a very small number of them, they have got to recognise that things have changed.

“The party has changed, we’ve learned the lessons from defeat, we know our job is to try and serve the British public and give them a choice at the next election. They have got to recognise that that’s the future and we are not going to cling on to the past.”

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