Thousands of people taking holidays abroad will miss their right to vote by post because of new Government procedures.

A decision to lift restrictions for postal votes and extend the deadline for applications until just six working days before polling day on June 7 has rebounded.

It means ballot slips cannot be released by election officers until after the May 30 deadline - leaving insufficient time for many people who will be on holiday on June 7 to receive and post back their votes.

Leeds-Bradford Airport expects well in excess of 71,000 people to fly off on holiday next month in one of the year's busiest periods.

Today Bradford Council leader Councillor Margaret Eaton was taking the issue up with the Home Office after receiving complaints from angry residents, who will be abroad when the slips go out.

She described the Government campaign - backed by costly advertisements - to get people to use postal votes by lifting restrictions and offering them to everyone as "tokenistic" and said the system had not been properly thought out.

The Electoral Reform Society - which gives specialist advice on conducting elections - said it would also take up the issue.

Today Gordon Rushworth, who will miss his vote, along with his family, said: "I am disgusted."

Mr Rushworth, 68, his wife, Marjorie, 59, and son, Stephen, 35, will be on a coach tour holiday in America and say it will be impossible to get their voting slips and return them in time. The retired BT worker said: "We have always voted. I have been told I can vote by proxy but that destroys my right to a confidential vote."

Until this year the deadline for postal votes was 11 days before the election and people were not allowed to be sent or return voting slips from abroad.

Bradford Council has received 10,500 applications to vote by post - 6,000 more than normal. Election unit manager Susan Saunders said a number were from people who would be abroad and faced voting by proxy because of the time scale.

Alex Folkes, spokesman from the Electoral Reform Society, said: "We are concerned about this and can understand why some people don't want to vote by proxy.

"We can't do anything about it this time but we will be keeping tabs on it to see how problematic it is. They haven't actually lost anything, though, because people were not allowed to vote on holiday until this year."

l Former MPs from across the district were today facing challenges to their seats as nominations for candidates closed last night. There are 27 candidates in Bradford North, Bradford South, Bradford West, Keighley and Shipley constituencies.

The eyes of the nation are expected to be on Shipley, Keighley, Bradford West and Leeds North West where former Labour MP Harold Best is defending his seat.

They have been named in national surveys as some of the country's least predictable targets which could change hands.

Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Green party candidates are contesting the seats held by the district's former MPs Gerry Sutcliffe, Marsha Singh, Chris Leslie and Terry Rooney. But George Riseborough is standing in Bradford South for Defend the Welfare State against Blairism, which has been accepted as a political party by the Electoral Commission. He says the new party offers a moderate alternative to voters.

There are four candidates from the United Kingdom Independence Party, an Asian League candidate and contenders from the Socialist Labour Party, Social Alliance as well as a British National Party contender.