ALMOST 30,000 more people have registered to vote in Oxfordshire ahead of today’s historic EU referendum.

In a rush before the deadline of June 7, the Electoral Commission said 28,146 had signed up across the county since December 2015.

The rise was biggest in Oxford – which increased 10.1 per cent to 97,309 – with 4,895 people registering in the last week alone.

In the 48-hour extension that followed due to technical problems on the gov.uk website another 1,041 signed up.

A spokesman for the city council, which ran a campaign to get people to register, said: “The elections team has worked hard to achieve this figure, so we are thrilled.”

Nationally, the regions with the biggest percentage increase in electorate were all in the south of England, with London the biggest at 6.6 per cent.

The boost came before what promised to be a knife-edge vote on Britain’s EU membership, with leaders of the Leave and Remain campaigns crossing the country in a final push to convince the public.

Prime Minister David Cameron joined political rivals on a battle bus in Bristol, Swindon and Abingdon to promise a “bigger, better Britain”.

The Witney MP told a rally: “If we want a bigger economy and more jobs, we are better if we do it together.

“If we want to fight climate change, we are better if we do it together. If we want to win against the terrorists and keep our country safe, we are better if we do it together.”

He also stopped off at Millets Farm in Frilford for tea and cake.

Daren Fisher, site development and operations manager, said: “He obviously wanted to go round as much of his home county as possible. I understand he met a war veteran and his wife. We had to provide an area of the Farmhouse Kitchen for him and baked him a bespoke cake.

“It was a busy lunchtime, so families were excited to see him.”

Meanwhile, Leave standard-bearer Boris Johnson took to the skies for a helicopter tour of the country to tell voters today could be “independence day”.

He said: “We are on the verge, possibly, of an extraordinary event in the history of our country and indeed in the whole of Europe.

“It’s all going to be about getting our supporters out to vote.”

In an interview with the Oxford Mail, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said it was “vital” that people turned out to cast their vote today.

He added: “It is a huge decision and it matters not just for this generation but for our children and our grandchildren.

“I hope everyone, whichever side they are supporting, will turn out and vote.”

Despite Mr Cameron’s claims in an interview with The Sun on Tuesday that a vote to remain would give him a mandate to go back and secure further reforms, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said yesterday Brussels had given the “maximum” possible.

Mr Juncker told reporters: “The British policy makers and British voters have to know that there will be no kind of renegotiation.”