NO COMMENT: The MoD has failed to deny it misled parliament over UFO interest.

Express.co.uk asked the ministry to respond to claims made by a former officer who investigated the phenomena for the department until 2009.

Nick Pope, who worked in the MoD division responsible for looking at the potential threat to the UK from UFOs, spoke out after it emerged the US Department of Defense ran a secret study into the threat of UFOs from 2007 to 2012.

Mr Pope told Express.co.uk: “It's an extraordinary revelation, not least because it directly contradicts the many specific denials that the US government has issued previously when asked about this subject, and their involvement in it.

"It precisely reflects my own experience of this intriguing but frustrating subject, with the British Government.