1.1 million people added to electoral roll

More than a million voters have been added to the electoral roll ahead of Thursday’s general election, new figures show.

A total of 46.9 million people are eligible to vote on polling day, according to Press Association provisional data.

This is up from 45.8 million in December 2016.

It is also higher than the number for the 2015 general election, which was 46.4 million.

Of the 1.1 million voters to have joined the electorate since 2016, almost a third (31%) are in constituencies in London and south-east England. By contrast only 3% are in north-east England.

The seat with the biggest increase is Leeds North West, where the size of the electorate has jumped by 16%.

Other big increases include Bethnal Green and Bow (15%), Poplar and Limehouse (14%) and Leeds Central (13%).

In 31 seats the size of the electorate has gone down, with the largest drop in Banbury (down 6%).

Of the top 50 seats with the biggest increase in electorate, 31 were won by Labour at the last election and 13 by the Conservatives.

Many of the top 50 are within areas that traditionally have a large student population, such as Leeds, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff and Brighton.

But only 11 of the top 50 could be classed as marginal seats, which saw MPs elected on majorities of up to 5,000 at the 2015 general election.

Among those constituencies to show a drop in electorate, only three of the top 50 are marginals.