MPs to vote on extension

MPs will vote today on a 48-hour extension to the deadline to register for the EU referendum, which is expected to allow tens of thousands more people to vote in the June 23 poll.

The emergency legislation came after the Government registration website crashed on Tuesday evening as almost a quarter of a million people tried to apply in the final hours before the midnight deadline.

Prime Minister David Cameron urged would-be voters to keep on submitting their details, saying he was working “urgently” to ensure they would be able to take part in the referendum.

But senior pro-Brexit Tory Bernard Jenkin, the chair of the Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, warned that the extension would be vulnerable to judicial review.

He told MPs that any attempt to rewrite the rules in a substantial way “would be complete madness and make this country look like an absolute shambles”.