This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen
on .
It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
EU referendum result: Britain votes for Brexit – live
EU referendum result: Britain votes for Brexit – live
(35 minutes later)
6.13am BST
6.47am BST
06:13
06:47
Liam Fox, the Conservative former defence secretary, told the BBC it would be a mistake for David Cameron to invoke article 50 (the procedure that starts the two-year countdown to withdrawal) immediately. Cameron said he would do this immediately in the event of a Brexit vote during the campaign. But Fox said that that was a campaign promise that it would be best to ignore.
Severin Carrell
6.07am BST
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, will now be gauging how strongly the party’s most senior figures, particularly her predecessor Alex Salmond, feel on whether the Scottish National party should call clearly now for a second independence referendum or simply demand that this option is put on the table.
06:07
Salmond is by far the next most influential SNP figure after Sturgeon and he made clear a month ago he believes there is a powerful case for a quick second referendum within two years of an EU exit vote. He told the Victoria Derbyshire BBC referendum debate in late May a new referendum “would have to be [held] within the two year period of UK negotiating withdrawal; it would have to be.”
We are going to get a statement from David Cameron shortly, Sky’s Kay Burley says.
A lot of SNP activists will take heed of Salmond’s views. The question now is whether Salmond takes that position given the UK has voted to leave despite Scotland giving the largest pro-EU vote of any part of the UK.
PM to make a statement shortly calling for stability and unity #EUref
The latest SNP manifesto on which it won a third successive Holyrood election said a Brexit vote would be the “material change” which could justify a second vote on Scotland’s constitutional future.
6.06am BST
Sturgeon’s instinct will be to tread carefully since few recent Scottish opinion polls show a majority of voters want a second referendum even if there was a Brexit vote, and she also knows the Scottish economy is very fragile, making her government’s spending heavily reliant on UK support.
06:06
Some senior SNP figures believe they need polls showing consistent 60% support for independence before calling for one.
John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has urged the government to take steps to stablise the economy.
People will be waking up this morning to turmoil in the markets and the pound crashing, and fearing the emergency budget the chancellor threatened to hike their taxes and cut public services.
The government must now take steps to stabilise the economy, and to protect jobs, pensions and wages. Labour will not allow any instability to be paid for by the working people of this country.
6.04am BST
06:04
Geert Wilders, a Dutch far-right politician, said on his website that Brexit has created a precedent for other European countries to exit the EU:
We want be in charge of our own country, our own money, our own borders, and our own immigration policy. If I become prime minister, there will be a referendum in the Netherlands on leaving the European Union as well. Let the Dutch people decide.
Hurrah for the British! Now it is our turn. Time for a Dutch referendum! #ByeByeEUhttps://t.co/kXZ0aQtgmx
6.04am BST
06:04
Leave has campaign has officially passed the winning post in the EU referendum, the Press Association reports.
6.02am BST
06:02
Matthew Weaver
The chair of Vote Leave, Gisela Stuart, broke into her native German to reassure Europe that Britain would continue to be an “open” and welcoming society” despite the decision to leave the EU.
In a speech in Manchester, Stuart provided this translation:
What I have just said [in German] is to make clear to all our colleagues in Europe, that Britain is an open society, it is a welcoming society and we will be continuing to be cooperating with European countries on an international level.
She added:
This referendum has taken place against the backdropof all the might of institutions and of money. The people were given the impression that they had no choice but to remain, but they voted to leave. It is now incumbent on all of us to be very calm ... and work together.
It is our opportunity to take back control of democratic decisions but also an opportunity to renew some of those processes. Vote Leave has been a cross party organisation. I think what happens now also has to be a cross party effort, because we have a responsibility to act in the best long term interest of this country.”
6.01am BST
06:01
JK Rowling has used Twitter to says that Daivd Cameron’s legacy will be “breaking up two unions”.
Scotland will seek independence now. Cameron's legacy will be breaking up two unions. Neither needed to happen. https://t.co/4MDj7pndcq
5.58am BST
05:58
EU referendum: how Britain voted out
We take look back at how events unfolded on EU referendum night. From the moment polls closed at 10pm to Farage’s victorious speech in the early hours of the morning, watch to see how Britain voted to leave the European Union.
5.58am BST
05:58
This is from the Spectator’s James Forsyth.
Looking at regional breakdown, clear 1 reason OUT won is that Remain didn’t really have any politicians who could speak to the working class
5.56am BST
05:56
Helena Bengtsson
With over 90 % of the results reported, these are the areas that voted most in favour of leave or remain:
Top 10 leave
Boston – 75.6%South Holland – 73.6%Castle Point – 72.7%Thurrock – 72.3%Great Yarmouth – 71.5%Fenland – 71.4%Mansfield – 70.9%Bolsover – 70.8%North East Lincolnshire – 69.9%Ashfield – 69.8%
LEave 300k votes shy of official winning line with 20 counting areas to go - over 1 million votes ahead
5.50am BST
05:50
Paddy Ashdown wants David Cameron to stay as prime minister.
Please stay PM, said the pirates who took over the ship as they lead him down to the hold in chains.
5.49am BST
05:49
This is from Sky’s Faisal Islam.
Fall in sterling in past few hours says @EdConwaySky by 15 cents is now bigger than Black Wednesday - FTSe seen 6%+ down
5.49am BST
05:49
Henry McDonald
Sinn Féin’s declaration that the British government has “forfeited any mandate” to represent the economic or political interests of Northern Ireland is a restatement of party policy.
Martin McGuinness, the Sinn Féin deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, has already called for a referendum on the region’s future within the UK in the event of a Brexit vote.
While the party might press the British government for such a vote, unionists will resist a so-called border poll. In addition, all the opinion polls on the issue of whether Northern Ireland exits the UK to join in a united Ireland indicate the majority would support maintaining the British link.
On Friday morning the party’s national chairman, Declan Kearney, said:
All the indications are that we are going to see English votes overturning the democratic will of people here in the north of Ireland. Republican and unionist, Catholic and Protestant people have voted in favour of remain.
The British government as a direct result have forfeited any mandate to represent the interests of people here in the north of Ireland in circumstances where the north is dragged out of Europe as a result of a vote to leave.
5.44am BST
05:44
Leave campaigners across the country are celebrating the victory for their side:
5.44am BST
05:44
This is from the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.
One source tells me Gove and Boris negotiating the terms of Cameron's departure - only one source
Different source says Boris and Gove haven't spoken to number 10 yet - deny suggestion deals being done
5.42am BST
05:42
Matthew Weaver
David Davis, a leave campaigner and Cameron’s opponent in the Tory party’s last leadership race, has backed calls for the prime minister to continue.
Speaking to Sky News he said:
What we need now is a sensible policy on negotiating our new relationship with the European Union and stability so we get on with that policy. So long as he appoints a sensible team and gives them the power to do it, I don’t see any threat to him at all.
One of the things about David Cameron is that he is a very tough cookie and he’s good at getting out of difficult scrapes and difficult corners. I actually think that in the country’s interest he should provide some stability while we do this negotiation, that’s the right thing to do.
He has got to put in place a team to do the negotiation, and that needs to start planning right away.
Asked if Cameron should appoint leading Brexiters Boris Johnson or Michael Gove to lead the negotiations, Davis said:
He should give it to someone committed to that aim, and those to people are certainly possibles in that category.
When you are going through a campaign like this it is very rough and tumble, things are said often that are maybe regretted later. Just as in the 2010 election you may remember Nick Clegg and David Cameron knocking seven bells out of each other, three days after the election they were gazing into each other’s eyes in the rose garden. We will come together as a party, we always have before, we will this time and actually put the interest of the country first, which means a new negotiation with the European Union and that’s the most important thing.
Asked if he backed an early election, Davis said:
No I don’t. I think the most important thing now is to deliver on the referendum. That will take two or three years to do, and you want a bit of time for that to bed in before your next election. We have just got enough time.
Updated
Updated
at 5.47am BST
at 6.48am BST
5.38am BST
6.45am BST
05:38
06:45
8 questions Cameron must address when he speaks to the nation
Oliver Holmes in Bangkok has rounded up some perspective from east Asia on the UK’s referendum result:
Andrew Sparrow
There has been little reaction to the UK’s Brexit vote so far from east Asian leaders, but the widely anticipated tumbles in global stock markets have already begun to play out.
David Cameron is expected to address the nation this morning, and he may well be writing his speech now. Here are some of the questions he has to address.
A senior Bank of Thailand official told the Bangkok Post that Brexit would have minimal domestic impact, but could pose a long-term threat.
1 - What will be done to calm the markets? With the pound in freefall, will the Bank of England intervene? There has even been talk of closing the stock market to stop panic selling of share. Cameron will have to say something to steady nerves.
In the Philippines, newspapers were warning of the potential financial repercussions of the referendum result. Annual remittances from overseas Filipinos in the UK amount to more than £1bn, nearly 6%, of all money wired home by south-east Asian expats.
2 - Will he remain as prime minister? No one expects him to leave Number 10 this morning, but does he really think he will be able to oversee the EU withdrawal process over the next few year? Perhaps he does. More likely, he will recognise that is unrealistic. In that case it is possible that he may announce his intention to stand down later this year, possibly before the Tory conference.
Hong Kong’s chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, said earlier this week that the city – home to about 600 British companies should brace itself for a large fallout following Brexit. “As a highly open and internationalised small economy in a globalised market, the impact on Hong Kong will be relatively large,” he said.
3 - Will he invoke article 50 of the Lisbon treaty immediately? This is the process that starts the two-year countdown to Brexit. Before the referendum Cameron said he would trigger article 50 straightaway, but there is no reason why he should and every reason to delay. It makes no sense to start the two-year clock running until the UK knows what it wants. He would be wise to clarify his intentions.
4 - Will parliament be recalled? There is a strong case for saying it should sit on Saturday, to allow the government to assure MPs that it has a plan before markets open again on Monday.
5 - Who will be in charge of the withdrawal negotiations? This begs the huge question as to what mandate will apply to those doing the negotiating. Will Cameron seek cross-party agreement? Will he take the Vote Leave programme as a manifesto he is bound to honour? For example, will the UK definitely withdraw from the single market?
6 - Will there be an emergency budget? George Osborne said an emergency budget would be necessary this summer. Does that still apply, or will Cameron write that off as campaign scaremongering?
7 - Will there be an election? There is a case for saying a new prime minister may need a mandate for the withdrawal negotiations – although there are probably very few people in Westminster with the appetite for another election now?
8 - Does Cameron accept that the Scots have the right to have a second independence referendum? During the campaign he said the 2014 referendum was supposed to last for a generation, but there were some moments during the campaign when he accepted that the Scots would have a case for demanding a second referendum if they voted to stay in the EU while the UK as a whole voted out. And that is what has happened. (See 5.32pm.)
Updated
Updated
at 5.52am BST
at 6.49am BST
5.32am BST
6.41am BST
05:32
06:41
Region by region voting figures
The FT’s Jim Pickard has a copy of the script that Labour MPs have been told to use when giving interviews overnight.
Here are the latest region by region voting figures.
SCRIPT: Those poor Labour MPs...so many words to remember...so little time to mug up...this is one of many pages.... pic.twitter.com/rAQ1MEz94D
They show that Scotland voted to stay in the EU by a large margin - even though the UK as a whole is voting out.
6.39am BST
Eastern After 43 results out of 47 in the EU referendum, running totals are: Voting Total Share areas votes % Remain 1,273,544 - 43.24%Leave 1,671,469 - 56.76%
06:39
East Midlands After 32 results out of 40 in the EU referendum, running totals are: Voting Total Share areas votes % Remain 798,353 - 41.56% Leave 1,122,403 - 58.44%
John Redwood, the pro-Brexit Tory, told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “This has to be a Brexit government.” But he sidestepped questions about who he would like to see as prime minister.
London After 29 results out of 33 in the EU referendum, running totals are: Voting Total Share areas votes Remain 1,955,018 - 59.94% Leave 1,306,503 - 40.06%
6.37am BST
North-east After 11 results out of 12 in the EU referendum, running totals are: Voting Total Share areas votes % Remain 480,573 - 41.36%Leave 681,404 - 58.64%
06:37
Northern Ireland After one result out of one in the EU referendum, running totals are: Voting Total Share areas votes % Remain 1 440,707 - 55.78% Leave 0 349,442 - 44.22%
Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, has told ITV’s Good Morning Britain that he thought it was a mistake for the Vote Leave campaign to say that it could save £350m a week by leaving the EU and that the money could go to the NHS.
North-west After 38 results out of 39 in the EU referendum, running totals are: Voting Total Share areas votes % Remain 1,603,565 - 46.18% Leave 1,868,843 - 53.82%
6.36am BST
Scotland After 32 results out of 32 in the EU referendum, running totals are: Voting Total Share areas votes % Remain 1,661,191 - 62.00% Leave 1,018,322 - 38.00%
06:36
South-east After 58 results out of 67 in the EU referendum, running totals are: Voting Total Share areas votes % Remain 1,937,512 - 47.71%Leave 2,123,281 - 52.29%
6.32am BST
South-west & Gibraltar After 31 results out of 38 in the EU referendum, running totals are: Voting Total Share areas votes % Remain 1,122,386 - 47.86% Leave 1,222,974 - 52.14%
06:32
Wales After 22 results out of 22 in the EU referendum, running totals are: Voting Total Share areas votes % Remain 772,347 - 47.47% Leave 854,572 - 52.53%
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German foreign minister, has said this is a sad day for Britain and for the EU.
West Midlands After 27 results out of 30 in the EU referendum, running totals are: Voting Total Share areas votes % Remain 1,038,695 - 40.89% Leave 1,501,474 - 59.11%
FM #Steinmeier: The early morning news from #GreatBritain are truly sobering. It looks like a sad day for #Europe+the #UnitedKingdom. #UK 🇪🇺
Yorkshire & The Humber After 20 results out of 21 in the EU referendum, running totals are: Voting Total Share areas votes % Remain 1,094,681 - 41.63%Leave 1,534,954 - 58.37%
6.31am BST
06:31
Reuters in Sydney has this reaction from Australia’s Malcolm Turnbull on Brexit.
Australia’s prime minister said on Friday he expects a period of uncertainty and some instability in global markets as Britain was on the verge of Brexit but the immediate impact on Australia will be limited.
‘The impact on Australia immediately, directly, from a legal point of view, will be very limited because it will take some years for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union, to negotiate an exit,’ he told reporters.
‘However, we’ve seen already large falls on stock markets and there will be a degree of uncertainty for some time.’
Updated
Updated
at 5.55am BST
at 6.31am BST
6.28am BST
06:28
Matthew Weaver
Green MP Caroline Lucas described the referendum result as heartbreaking and called for voting reform to allow the public to better express their anger.
Speaking to BBC News she said:
I think this is an absolutely devastating result. Personally, I feel pretty heartbroken. It has revealed massive divisions within our country. There is such levels of alienation and anger and frustration which is real wake up call to Westminster. We have got here basically people rebelling against 98% of MPs.
The anger that we are hearing from around the country actually was less to do with EU per se and more to do with a sense of just having been un-heard, un-listened to for so many years.
In a statement, she added:
We’re calling on all sides to come together to fix our democracy here in Britain – starting with electoral reform for the House of Commons. The democratic deficit will not be fixed by leaving the EU – we need to look closer to home too.
The prospect of shutting down the right to free movement is frightening, as are the consequences of a campaign that has at times pitted neighbours against one another, whipped up fear and allowed lies and myths to take the place of truth. Britain deserves better and I am pledging anew to fight against division on behalf of my constituents.
Updated
at 6.29am BST
6.27am BST
06:27
Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right Front National party, has welcomed the result of the referendum. She says she wants a similar referendum in France.
Victoire de la liberté ! Comme je le demande depuis des années, il faut maintenant le même référendum en France et dans les pays de l'UE MLP
