Nearly 700,000 apply to register to vote on deadline day

Nearly 700,000 people applied to register to vote on Tuesday, as the deadline to take part in next month’s general election arrived.

It is the largest volume of applications submitted in a single day since registration data was first published in June 2014.

A total of 659,666 applications were submitted, according to government figures.

This is higher than the 622,398 on deadline day for the 2017 general election, and 485,012 on the equivalent day for the 2015 poll.

Overall some 3.85 million applications have been submitted since 29 October this year – the day that MPs voted to hold an election on December 12.

Of that number, 37% have been submitted by people aged under 25, while 30% have come from people aged 25 to 34.

By contrast, just 4% were from people aged 65 and over.

The number of applications to vote is not the same as the number of new people joining the electoral register.

They are merely applications to join the register, which have yet to be approved or rejected.

Typically, these include some people who are already on the register, or who are not eligible to vote – so the number of new voters able to take part in the election on 12 December may be somewhat smaller than the total applications.