Gibraltar has accused Spain of "hijacking" a Telegraph poll which asked the question “Is Gibraltar British or Spanish?”

The poll, which was originally published in 2013, has garnered close to two million votes – the vast majority of them voting in favour of Spain.

The Government of Gibraltar has raised concerns that the results are skewed, because Spaniards are encouraged to vote for the rock to be handed over to Madrid.

It argues the poll results are then used in the Spanish media to justify the claim that the majority of people believe Gibraltar is Spanish.

A Gibraltar Government spokesman told the Telegraph: "Whenever Gibraltar is in the news, the Spanish media actively use this hijacked poll against us."

In the last 24 hours, an article quoting David Cameron saying he is "seriously concerned" about the escalation of tensions over the border between Spain and Gibraltar, has had more than 200k page views. More than 98 per cent of these are from Spain.