LEFT-WING MPs pushing for a four-month propaganda ban before the EU referendum won influential support yesterday from the Electoral Commission.

Kate Hoey and Kelvin Hopkins are among Labour MPs who united with Tory rebels to demand an official 16-week campaign period before the referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU. That would stop government plans to completely scrap the normal 28-day “purdah” period of neutrality before the referendum.

Both Ms Hoey and Mr Hopkins are on Parliament’s constitutional affairs committee, which yesterday heard evidence from election experts about the effect of the Tory plans on impartiality.

Electoral Commission legal counsel Bob Posner told the committee that the commission was “quite clear that the 28 days should apply” and that “aspects should apply for the whole 16 weeks.”

That would stop a repeat of government propaganda drives seen just weeks before last year’s Scottish referendum, he said.

Mr Posner could give no assurances, however, that British law could prevent the European Commission from meddling in the campaign.

“There is a third party around, which is the European Commission, and the whole European establishment,” said Ms Hoey.

The European Commission cannot register as an official campaign body or donate money to pro-EU campaigns. But asked whether the commission could issue a report warning against exit, Mr Posner said: “What I couldn’t say with clarity is how our enforceability would work outside the UK.”