Deaths from suicide, drug and alcohol overdoses are rising among middle-aged Britons, the Institute of Fiscal Studies has warned as it launches a major five-year study into social inequality.

The think tank said the increase in such fatalities, dubbed “deaths of despair”, may be linked to a process of "cumulative disadvantage for less-educated people".

Such deaths, which include drink-related liver disease, among 45-54-year-olds in England continued to rise between 1993 and 2017.

They are now higher than those caused by heart disease among women of that age group, and almost level-pegging with those among men, an IFS study found.

It said that deteriorating job prospects, social isolation and relationship breakdown "may slowly being taking their toll on people's mental and physical health".

"In the UK, this new trend has contributed to a small rise in middle-age mortality overall in the last few years, bringing to an end decades of continual improvement," the report added.