- UPDATE The deadline for registering to vote in the EU referendum is to be extended to midnight on Thursday 9 June as Whitehall scrambles to recover from the collapse of a government website.
BBC — The voter registration website suffered technical problems late on Tuesday evening, prompting calls for a deadline extension.
The Cabinet Office said the issue had been caused by “unprecedented demand”.
Before the deadline, the Electoral Commission said 1.65 million people had applied for a vote since a campaign began last month.
However, this also meant that millions had yet to sign up for the referendum on 23 June.
The BBC’s Newsnight editor Ian Katz tweeted that traffic to the site peaked at 22.15 BST when some 50,000 people were trying to register – making it subsequently crash.
From the BBC’s “All you need to know about the EU referendum “
If I retire to an EU country will my healthcare costs still be covered?
If Britain leaves the EU but remains in the single market, or the European Economic Area as it is known, it might be able to continue with this arrangement,according to a House of Commons library research note. If Britain has to negotiate trade deals with individual member states, it may opt to continue paying for expats’ healthcare through the NHS or decide that they would have to cover their own costs if they continue to live abroad, if the country where they live declines to do so.
Would Britain be party to the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership if it left?
The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership – or TTIP – currently under negotiation between the EU and United States will create the biggest free trade area the world has ever seen. Cheerleaders for TTIP, including David Cameron, believe it could make American imports cheaper and boost British exports to the US to the tune of £10bn a year. But many on the left, including Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, fear it will shift more power to multinational corporations, undermine public services, wreck food standards and threaten basic rights. Quitting the EU would mean the UK would not be part of TTIP. It would have negotiate its own trade deal with the US.
