Good-looking people are more likely to hold right-wing views, such as Zac Goldsmith, right, unlike Rik from the Young Ones, who regularly spouted communist slogans

There is a school of thought that all militant socialists really need is a bath, a haircut, and to find themselves a nice girlfriend. Now researchers have found that, even if they did scrub up, they would probably still be uglier than Tories.

As unlikely as it might seem to anyone who ever attended a meeting of the Young Conservatives, a study found that attractive people have a tendency to be more right-wing.

Could the communists have been more successful if they were sexier? ALAMY

Past studies have shown that good-looking candidates have better chances in elections. But few experts have asked whether similar effects come into play among voters. “Attractiveness matters. When we are treated differently we begin to perceive the world differently,” said Rolfe Peterson, of Susquehanna University, who conducted the study with Illinois State