An election watchdog is to investigate what it describes as “troubling claims” that some voters may have voted twice in the general election.

It comes amid concerns that the vote in Canterbury could have been affected by “double voting”, with some electors - particularly students - being registered to vote in two areas.

Canterbury City Council, which oversees elections in the district, admits it does not know if this happened in the Canterbury and Whitstable constituency and has no plans to investigate.

The Electoral Commission has published a report that has flagged up the issue.

It states: "Although people may lawfully be registered to vote in more than one place in certain circumstances, it is troubling that some voters appear to have admitted voting more than once at the General Election, which is an offence."

It pointed out that Canterbury was among several constituencies where “there were also notable increases [in the electorate] of more than 10% in constituencies with high concentrations of students.”

The commission said: “Urgent action is needed to reduce both the scale and the administrative impact of duplicate registration applications ahead of future polls.

"The Commission wants to work with the UK’s governments to incorporate more automatic checks into the online application service to highlight if someone has already submitted an application.”

The report suggests that “a significant proportion of applications [to join the electoral register] are likely to have been duplicates” - ranging from 30% to 70% in some areas.”

The watchdog said nearly two million young people applied to vote after Prime Minister Theresa May announced a snap election.

About 500,000 more people were on the electoral roll for the June 8 poll than in 2015, taking the electorate to 46.8 million, its highest ever number.

Sir John Holmes, Chair of the Electoral Commission, said: “If we are to keep pace with modern habits and practice in a digital world, the electoral registration system must continue to evolve, and consider innovative solutions such as direct or automatic enrolment processes.

"These have the potential to deliver significant improvements to the accuracy and completeness of electoral registers as well as efficiencies for local authorities and the public purse.”