Thousands of people ineligible to vote in the EU referendum have been sent ballot papers, the Government have said.

EU nationals and a 17-year-old girl are among those to receive postal voting papers, despite not being allowed to take part in the June 23 poll.

Cabinet Office minister Oliver Letwin said he believed 5,000 papers had wrongly been sent out nationwide, when quizzed by MPs on Thursday.

Mr Letwin said: "There has been, in a few cases, a problem with the issue of votes to people who were not eligible for voting.

"That problem has now been inspected and cured, and we need to make sure that in future elections it doesn't happen."