Britain votes to LEAVE the EU on a dramatic night as Nigel Farage declares ‘victory for ordinary people’
BRITAIN is this morning heading out of the European Union after a historic referendum vote for Out stunned the world.
At just after 6am Leave passed the threshold of 16.8million votes needed to trigger a Brexit.
The ultra-narrow margin of victory of 52% to 48% left the nation split down the middle and triggered Prime Minister David Cameron's resignation.
A massive popular uprising against London elites was credited for the extraordinary result which defied almost every expert prediction.
Huge swathes of northern England, the East coast, the Midlands and Wales, plus rural areas across the south, all backed Out.
Only Scotland, Northern Ireland and inner city areas of London and Manchester voted by large majorities to Remain.
The final result saw 17,759,184 Brits vote to leave, while 16,580,508 backed remain.
And the shock decision plunged the financial markets into unprecedented chaos.
The pound plummeted by almost 10% across the night - a 31 year low - and the London stock exchange was expected to see a major crash today.
Pro-EU Prime Minister David Cameron this morning announced he will resign following the shock result.
In an emotional address outside Downing Street, Mr Cameron revealed he wanted a new leader to be in place by this autumn’s Conservative conference.
The PM said: "I do not think it would be right for me to be the captain that steers our country to its next destination."
Flanked by wife Samantha, Mr Cameron added he had informed the Queen of his decision to remain in place for the short term.
He said: "The British people have voted to leave the European Union and their will must be respected.
"The will of the British people is an instruction that must be delivered."
Following the statement prominent Brexiteer Boris Johnson, the man who could replace Mr Cameron, left his house without saying a word to waiting reporters.
A jubilant Ukip boss Nigel Farage, who claimed victory just as dawn was breaking, hailed it as a triumph "for real people, a victory for ordinary people, a victory for decent people"; and called for today to be made a Bank Holiday.
Delivering his post EU referendum result speech in London, Mr Farage said: "The EU is failing, the EU is dying and I hope we've knocked the first brick out of the wall.
"I hope this is the first step towards a Europe of sovereign nation states; trading together, neighbours together, friends together - but without flags, anthems or useless old unelected presidents."
He told of rumours that the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Austria and Italy were looking to make their exit from the EU.
He then called for the current Government to be replaced with a "Brexit Government" so that negotiations to leave the EU can begin immediately.
Ending his speech with supporters waving Union Jack flags behind him, Mr Farage said that today should be made to be a public bank holiday - called Independence Day.
He added: "There are 183 countries in the world who have independence day - what we have just done is we voted to become the 184th."
EU bosses called an emergency meeting in Brussels today, and the White House say President Obama has been briefed on the outcome and will speak with Mr Cameron.
ITV was the first broadcaster to call the result for Leave at 4.34am, followed a few minutes later by the BBC and Sky News.
More than 30 million Brits voted yesterday in a massive turnout of 72% after the EU debate set the nation alight.
It was the highest turnout in a nationwide vote in 24 years since the 1992 general election.
Desolate Remain campaign boss Will Straw dubbed the astonishing result “a wake up call for the political and economic elites”.
Eurosceptic Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg said a fresh general election may now be needed.
As Leave’s victory looked ever more sure, Tony Blair’s former communications director Alistair Campbell predicted a fresh Scottish independence referendum is now “very likely”.
Mr Campbell added: “And I think the nationalists will win it”.
Pro-EU energy secretary Amber Rudd said the rain had blighted the turnout in London and the South East, claiming: “the weather I’m afraid has not helped”.
John Mann told BBC News: “Labour voters have decisively voted to leave the EU.
“Labour has gone wrong by not being in touch with their voters. I have been saying this for the last ten years in term of immigration...
“It’s a small number of people who have been saying this at the national level.
“What this country is offering is agency work, insecurity...people are sick to death of it and that’s why people in huge numbers are voting to leave the EU.”
Earlier in the night Tory MP Neil Carmichael said he believed the Remain campaign had sneaked it.
And speaking to The Sun he endorsed the PM's leadership saying: "David Cameron was bold enough to promise a referendum, he delivered a referendum, and by all accounts he has probably won that referendum and I think that is an endorsement of his leadership and it's a great thing we're in this position."
Two final pre-voting polls also revealed an eleventh hour shift back to the status quo and a Remain vote by thousands of nervous voters.
A survey by Populus yesterday morning gave staying in a 10 point lead, by 55% to 45%.
And an Ipsos-Mori poll for the Evening Standard put Remain narrowly ahead by 52% versus 48%.
Flooding and storms blitzed much of the south, the Midlands and the east - especially at peak voting times going and coming back from work.
A few polling stations were flooded and had to be closed for hours.
But plucky Brits still queued often in heavy rain to ensure their voices were heard.
A record 46.5 million registered to vote in the landmark In/Out poll after the heated debate over Britain’s EU membership gripped the nation, and split the country down the middle.
Turnout was widely expected to be bigger even than last year’s general election figure of 66.4%.
Scotland’s chief returning officer Mary Pitkeithley even suggested it could be as high as 80% in some areas.
And in the London borough of Tower Hamlets, three times the amount had voted by 10am than had at the same point during the general election.
Frantic efforts were made by both camps across the day to persuade voters leaning their way to get to the polling stations.
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The In campaign boasted a much larger ground operation to get out their vote, door knocking and manning phone banks through yesterday.
Remain had the advantage of the official Labour, Lib Dem and SNP party machines as well as the big unions’ manpower on their side.
During the afternoon, Vote Leave’s Chief Executive Matthew Elliott sent a mass email out to supporters to warn the Remain strongholds of London and Scotland were voting “in big numbers”.
The round robin urged Leave backers to “call, text and email your friends and family” to persuade them to get to polling stations to vote Leave.
Mr Elliott even included in it a photo of a long queue outside a polling station in “a leafy London suburb”.
Less than two hours before polls closed, Labour urged their supporters to make their vote count.
In a campaign email, the party said: “It looks like their could be a record number of people at the polls today, showed just how historic an event and how important this decision is to all of us. If you haven’t voted yet - don’t miss out being a part of it.”
Leave bosses were boosted by reports of hundreds of voters turning up in stronghold areas such as Lincolnshire saying they had never voted before.
They also claimed they had a significant lead in postal votes by a ratio of 70-30 in some areas, as they are largely used more by older people who tend to favour Brexit.
With just a few hours of voting to go, Leave boss Boris Johnson said: “I think the polls have been very close.
“From what I have heard and all the information is that turnout is good in areas where we need it to be.”
One Brexit MP said ground campaigners were “confident” but that the key battleground would be the Midlands and Yorkshire.
He said: “I really do think there is a Shy Brexit vote. I think there are people out there who back a Brexit who just haven’t spoken about it.
“But we’ll see.”
But a Brexit-backing minister said the “biblical” rain appeared to have affected the turnout in key Vote Leave regions such as Essex and Kent.
The minister told The Sun: “Look at the chaos in London, people just can’t get home to vote. The weather has really hit us.
“The rain just seems to have dampened the mood altogether.”
As polls closed In campaigners gathered at the Royal Festival Hall on London’s South Bank to nervously watch the results.
The post-vote YouGov poll is a repeat of the one the firm ran on the day of the Scotland referendum when they called the final result of 55% to 45% spot on.
The final result will be far closer than the last referendum on Europe 41 years ago in 1975, when In won by 67% to 33%.
Budget airline Ryanair called the referendum result for Remain as soon as polls closed.
In a bid for publicity, the airline announced launched a seat sale “to celebrate the UK’s vote to Remain in Europe”.