Only a tiny minority of voters agree with David Cameron's handling of the Jeremy Hunt row, a new survey has revealed.

A ComRes poll for ITV found just 16% of the public believe it is right for the media secretary to stay in his post, while 49% believe he should quit.

Three out of five voters wanted an independent probe into whether Mr Hunt's office passed information to James Murdoch's office during News Corp's bid for BSKyB.

The news comes after Mr Cameron went full-out in his defence of the media secretary during a tumultuous session in the Commons.

Visibly angry, the prime minister insisted yesterday that Mr Hunt had not broken the ministerial code and refused to launch an independent inquiry.

Nick Clegg, who has sometimes appeared reticent and uncomfortable when the prime minister was defending the media secretary, struck a different note this morning when he said he was not "hung up" on whether Mr Hunt faced Leveson or an independent inquiry.