Lord Falconer has admitted that the government’s deadline of getting all 14 million postal ballots to post offices by midnight last night might not be met.

The constitutional affairs secretary said that 420,000 papers had still not been delivered to post offices - three per cent of postal ballots - but the Royal Mail put this higher at five per cent or 700,000.

Royal Mail has also confirmed that it will be making a special delivery of postal ballot papers to polling stations on the evening of June 10.

The Guardian, meanwhile, reports on the complex and confusing forms confronting millions of voters involved in postal ballots.