Over one in four people who vote for the anti-immigration PVV believe in flying saucers and that governments are covering up the truth, according to researchers at Amsterdam’s VU university.

Almost one in four people who vote 50Plus, 15% of GroenLinks voters and 12% of Labour and SP supporters also believe UFOs regularly visit earth.

In addition, PVV and SP voters are most likely to believe in conspiracy theories, the research quoted by Trouw shows. People who vote for Christian parties are least likely to believe in flying saucers and government plots but they are more likely to believe that ‘researchers are deliberately exaggerating the effect of climate change’.

A representative group of the population was asked to say whether or not they believed in nine different statements, ranging from UFOs to princess Diana being murdered by the British secret service.