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.