BRITAIN’S missing ballots scandal deepened yesterday as Labour warned that the number of first-time voters alone is down 100,000 on 2014 following Tory meddling with the system.

Labour leader Ed Miliband used “national voter registration day” to launch an offensive over the changes which saw a new online system rushed through despite warnings over the problems it would cause.

Thousands of students are among those hit by the switch which stopped colleges and universities bulk registering people living in communal accommodation.

In a newspaper article Mr Miliband declared the situation a “one of the great scandals” of our time.

“Hundreds of thousands of people are losing the right to vote in our country because of decisions taken by ministers to rush through changes in the law,” he said.

“This is not just a scandal, it is a disaster for our democracy.”

His warning came as the party released new data suggesting falls as high as 97 per cent in some areas in the number of 16 to 18-year-olds added to the electoral register compared with the same period last year.

Overall it is estimated that one million voters could be missing from the electoral roll since online self-registration was introduced.

Among the worst hit are tenants and students whose addresses change frequently and therefore have not been automatically added to the register during the switch.

The University and Colleges Union (UCU) has joined with the National Union of Students and youth mobilisation group Bite the Ballot, organisers of voter registration day.

UCU said that at 22 million the number not casting a ballot was twice as large as those who actually backed the Tory Party.

The union’s general secretary Sally Hunt urged people to vote in “one of the least predictable and exciting” general elections in recent years, warning: “Statistics show that politicians don’t need anywhere like a real majority to get elected.

“The fact they can rely on voter apathy to get elected makes a mockery of our democratic system.”

Green Party leader Natalie Bennett branded low-voter registration levels “a real cause for concern.”

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