Tesco - Britain’s biggest retailer- has reported a 2.4% drop in like-for-like sales in the run-up to Christmas, as it struggles to turn its performance around.

Philip Clarke, chief executive of Tesco, said the drop in sales was due to the "weakness" of the grocery market as a whole but that the company's overall performance was also due to having opened fewer new stores than previously and having overhauled its non-food range so that fewer low-margin products, such as televisions, are stocked in store.