British citizens are among the most afraid in Europe of cyber attacks taking place during elections, a report by the European Commission has found.

Three out of four voters in the UK are concerned about widespread hacking while casting their vote, the report said. This level of concern was only beaten by Spain, where 77pc said they were afraid of such attacks.

The survey asked more than 27,000 individuals from across the 28 EU member states about their concerns over disinformation campaigns, and whether they thought data breaches and cyber attacks would interfere with electoral processes.

Estonia was the least concerned about hacking disrupting political discourse, with only 46pc expressing fears. The Eastern European nation was the first country to allow online voting in a general election in 2007. The report showed the majority of people in every other EU state feared cyber attacks would compromise voting in the future.

When asked generally about elections in Europe, around 61pc of respondents across the countries said they were concerned about elections being manipulated through cyber attacks, 59pc said they feared foreign actors and criminal groups influencing elections covertly, while 56pc said they were concerned that the final result of an election could be manipulated.

The research by the European Commission, for its “Democracy in the EU” report, was conducted ahead of the European elections in May next year.