More than 100,000 people have applied to register to vote since the start of the week, with young people making up the bulk of the surge against the backdrop of a momentous 48 hours in British politics.

On Monday, 52,408 applications were submitted, according to government figures, followed by 64,485 on Tuesday.

Q&A How do I register to vote in the 2019 general election? Show Hide If you want to vote in the general election on 12 December but haven’t yet registered – bad news. It is too late. However, you can still register online so you don’t miss out next time. And let’s face it, if the election results ends up being close, we could be having another one sooner than you think. Here’s how to get yourself registered for next time. To vote in a UK general election you must: Be 18 or over on the day of the election.

Be a British, Irish or qualifying Commonwealth citizen.

Be resident at an address in the UK (or a British citizen living abroad who has been registered to vote in the UK in the last 15 years).

Not be legally excluded from voting. You also need to be on the electoral register. You only have to register once, but will need to re-register if you have changed your address, name or nationality. The forms can be completed online. You may need details of your national insurance number and your passport if you’re a British citizen living abroad, and want to vote in England, Scotland or Wales. If you need help, you should contact your local Electoral Registration Office. You can use this service to find the address if you live in England, Scotland or Wales. If you live in Northern Ireland you need to contact the Electoral Office for Northern Ireland (EONI).

The figure on both days was significantly above the typical number for weekday applications, which has averaged about 27,000 for the past month.

Parties that have traditionally drawn support from younger people will be most encouraged by the figures, which show that 58% of applications submitted on the two days were from people aged 34 and under. Many of those signing up this week are understood to be students moving into new areas for the start of term, but experts pointed out that others may have put registering on the backburner.

“It’s not surprising that there will be a lot of young people in these figures,” said Dr Toby James, a senior lecturer at the University of East Anglia who has authored reports on Britain’s low levels of voter registrations.

“But I think that there is probably a tidal wave of applications to come. We’re all guilty of leaving things to the last minute.”

Labour, in particular, has been having conversations in recent months with groups behind voter registration drives amid concerns about the limitations in systems or names “falling off” registers.

Figures in the party are acutely aware that the deadline for applying to register to vote would be 27 September if a snap general election were to take place on 15 October, as Downing Street is understood to be planning.

If sufficient numbers of young voters are registered and marshalled, however, they could make significant impact in marginal seats with large student populations. Momentum, the grassroots Labour campaign, is to focus on a target list including Boris Johnson’s own constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip.

Cat Smith, the Labour MP who has been tasked with examining voter registration systems in other countries with a view to reform, said: “We will be working hard to encourage young people to register to vote, setting out our policies such as scrapping tuition fees and tackling the housing crisis.”

Meanwhile, the National Union of Students (NUS) is launching a voter registration campaign in partnership with the Electoral Commission next week and will be visible at campus “welcome weeks” around the country. Alongside the “Got 5” campaign, the union will also be launching social media videos tailored to individual student communities to explain the importance of registering to vote.

Others have independently been encouraging voter registration by sharing links to the government website. Describing the 48-hour increase as “great news”, the actor and comedian Rob Delaney tweeted: “No-deal Brexiteers’ greatest fears are new voters and young voters.”

rob delaney (@robdelaney) 🚨🇬🇧6️⃣4️⃣5️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ registered to vote yesterday! Best day yet! Biggest age groups: Under 25 & 25-34. Make today even better! GET THIS LINK IN FRONT OF PPL & get them to commit to you - face to face when possible - to REGISTER TO VOTE. https://t.co/WFNmvmRkyg

Also mobilising are a range a of non-partisan groups, such as the charity My Life My Say, which, over the coming days, will be relaunching a nationwide programme of “Democracy Cafes”. In partnership with Starbucks, the cafes aim to be focal points for debate and also voter registration.

The work comes as a debate has taken place among academics and others about the extent to which a “youthquake” occurred at the 2017 general election. On the one hand, figures such as Dr James Sloan at Royal Holloway University argue that, beyond the issue of electoral turnout, there was a step-change in youth political participation, as young people were attracted in large numbers to Jeremy Corbyn’s message.

Dr William Jennings, professor of political science and public policy at the University of Southampton, agreed there had been a youthquake in 2017 but described its broader impact on the election result as more of a “ripple”.

“We’ve seen a historical rise in young voter participating in recent years and Labour have been the beneficiaries, but the overall result and what it did for Labour was quite small. Tens of thousands of students could make the difference across some marginals, but it’s important to remember that turnout is still at a much higher rate among older voters.”