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 “It is with deep regret that we can confirm Ian Cameron died earlier this afternoon,” said Cameron’s spokesman, Steve Field, reading from a statement. “He passed away shortly after the prime minister arrived at the hospital in France where he was undergoing treatment.”

 The Prime Minister was at his father's bedside, having broken off his political engagements to rush to Toulon where his parents had been in the middle of a two-week holiday. Cameron flew to France earlier today from London’s City Airport with his brother Alex, after a 6am phone call from his mother Mary alerted him to his father's condition.

 They arrived around 12.30pm after taking a commercial flight from London City airport to Toulon, from where they were taken to the hospital on a helicopter provided by the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

 Sources told the Press Association he was "incredibly grateful" as he may not otherwise have been able to get there in time and was "relieved" to have been at his bedside.

.Friends said he was "relieved" to have been at the bedside, and was "pleased" that his father, aged 77, died peacefully and during a "happy family holiday".

Cameron, who has a sister and a brother, has in the past described his father, a stockbroker, in an ITV interview before the general election as a "huge hero figure" who instilled in him a "sense of optimism."

"He's an amazingly brave man because he was born with no heels – quite a disability. But the glass with him was half-full, normally with something alcoholic. I think I got my sense of optimism from him."