Update: Voting deadlines are extended until Thursday night

The deadline for registering to vote in the EU referendum is to be extended to midnight tomorrow, Cabinet Office minister Matt Hancock has announced.

It comes after the registration website crashed on Tuesday night, hours before the deadline.

More than a million potential voters have applied to register online over the last week, half of them on the final day, the government said, with a peak of more than 200,000 per hour ahead of the midnight deadline yesterday.

Turnout is expected to be important in determining the outcome of the close-fought referendum, with young people considered to be more pro-EU but also less likely to vote.

More than half of those who registered on the final day were under 34.

Speaking in parliament today, Prime Minister David Cameron said: “I am very clear that people should continue to register today.

“We are working urgently with them… to make sure those who register today and who registered last night will be able to vote in the EU referendum.”

Several senior politicians and the Commission itself had earlier called for the deadline to be extended.