First results in UK's historic referendum on EU membership

LONDON: -- The first results in the UK's referendum on whether to remain in the European Union are coming in.

Leave won in Sunderland by 22%, while Newcastle voted for Remain by a margin of 1% - tighter than predicted.

A full picture is not expected to emerge for two or three hours as counting continues around the country. Opinion polls were suggesting a Remain win.

Turnout looks set to be higher than at last year's general election.

Full story: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36612368


-- BBC 2016-06-24

LONDON (AP) - British pound sheds earlier gains in volatile trading as early results from EU vote come in.

Does GB get rid off German /EU diktat?

Incredibly close. A real thumbs down to the failed EU project.

Last 12 regions to declare.

9 for OUT

Still only 40,000 votes in it.

That IS close.

And with that, I am off to bed as the result will be expected breakfast time in the U.K.

Good night and have fun watching the results.

Oh, now I get it. I was confusing Brexit with Wheatabix.

Looking at the vote there are no surprises with Scotland. Personally I would give them independence but if they are after another referendum then the leave campaign will have just as much claim to another one, with this been so close too. Whatever the outcome the EU and its membership will not end here today.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-eu-referendum-36612368

2% lead and on an upwards trajectory . Bookies screwed the pooch on this one ?

Looking at the vote there are no surprises with Scotland. Personally I would give them independence but if they are after another referendum then the leave campaign will have just as much claim to another one, with this been so close too. Whatever the outcome the EU and its membership will not end here today.

Very true.

I fear that the EU is very much

A long way to go yet.

Whatever the result i hope people accept the choice of the people and we can move forward - the UK is still in the same place on google earth this morning and i still appear to be British.

I do think there will be a need to look at some behaviour that went on during the run up though which shouldn't just be brushed under the carpet.

Still only 40,000 votes in it.

That IS close.

And with that, I am off to bed as the result will be expected breakfast time in the U.K.

Good night and have fun watching the results.

Good night, although I wouldn't call it fun. Nail biting but more exciting than watching the Euros (football).

Leave 250,000 ahead now, wish I could go back to bed

Edit: make that 310,000

Was any side handing out' voting incentives' outside polling stations ?

The Labour party is now working on the assumption that leave will win, according to party source. The view in Labour HQ is that, if Britain does vote to leave, Jeremy Corbyn should call upon David Cameron to resign, but senior figures believe that that may prove unnecessary because Cameron may announce his departure of his own accord.

I would suggest that their is a lot more than Cameron should be resigning if Leave win.

The Latest: 'Leave' side leading as 1/3 of UK results in

LONDON (AP) — The Latest on Britain's referendum on whether to leave the European Union (all times local):

3:20 a.m.

Voters seeking a British exit from the European Union are leading, as one-third of official results have been declared in Britain's historic referendum.

As Friday's vote counting continued overnight, the "leave" side led with 50.9 percent of votes with "remain" trailing on 49.1 percent. The gap between the two sides stood at about 191,000 votes with 144 of the 382 count centers reporting results.

___

2:40 a.m.

Early results from London are showing strong support for the campaign to keep Britain within the European Union.

A win for the pro-European forces in the cosmopolitan capital was expected, but the high margins of victory in some London areas have given a little confidence to the "remain" camp amid poor results elsewhere.

The key will be turnout in a city that saw massive summer downpours on referendum day Thursday that caused some train and traffic chaos.

The south London boroughs of Wandsworth and Lambeth saw big margins and high turnouts, with 75 percent and 79 percent backing the "remain" side respectively.

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2:25 a.m.

A slew of new voting results from England, Wales and London are supporting the campaign to pull Britain out of Europe — and that means warning signs for the "remain" camp.

The first four results from Wales have shown majorities for the "leave" camp, even in Swansea, an urban area where "remain" had been expected to perform well.

The "leave" campaign also appeared to be doing better-than-expected in northeast England, where voters overwhelmingly chose to leave the EU.

Early indications showed high turnout in London, where the "remain" side is expected to dominate, but some commentators said turnout would have to be even higher to counterbalance the "leave" vote elsewhere.

___

2:15 a.m.

The "leave" side has become the betting favorite for the first time in the British referendum campaign on whether to leave the 28-nation European Union.

The Betfair market predicts a 51 percent chance of Britain leaving the EU, after stronger-than-expected results for the out campaign in several areas of England and Wales.

Bookies' odds on Brexit also shortened to as short as 6-5. They had been 5-1 only hours earlier, as polls pointed to a "remain" win.

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1:55 a.m.

The results from the British referendum on European Union membership are still far too incomplete to draw any solid conclusions.

Still, a series of better-than-expected results for the "leave" camp appears to have convinced some people that the drive to pull Britain out of Europe has a real chance of winning.

Google Trends, an arm of the search engine giant, says there has been a 250 percent spike in searches for the phrase "what happens if we leave the EU" in the past hour.

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1:25 a.m.

The neck-and-neck nature of the British referendum vote count had politicians and pollsters predicting an all-nighter for a nervous nation.

Senior Labour official John McDonnell is predicting a final result which will put both sides within one or two percentage points of each other.

One pollster described the vote as hanging "on a knife edge."

Former Labour leader Ed Milliband told Sky News that the vote would be very close, saying "I think this is going to be a long night."

___

12:50 a.m.

The British pound is getting whipsawed by volatile trading as initial results from the vote on whether the U.K. should remain in the European Union showed the race is too close to call.

The currency surged shortly after the polls closed Thursday, climbing to a 2016 peak of $1.50 after a leading proponent of the "leave" vote indicated he thought his side was heading for a loss. But the pound sold off — falling 4 cents in 5 minutes — after counts from cities including Newcastle and Sunderland showed the result was far from certain.

The pound was trading at about $1.453.

-- (c) Associated Press 2016-06-24

The area results up to now say it all

UK pensioners in Thailand better get voting, since their buying power has decreased by 3.5% in just the past hour

Brexit odds now 1/4. £ at $1.40 and falling.

The Latest: Stomach-churning night for 'remain' side in UK

LONDON (AP) — The Latest on Britain's referendum on whether to leave the European Union (all times local):

3:30 a.m.

The close vote in Britain's referendum on EU membership made for stomach-churning twists and turns as the "remain" and "leave" camps traded the lead in the official count.

At a "remain" party in East London, Labour Party councilor Andrew Cregan said he and his guests had been through "a bit of a roller-coaster ride."

He says "it was quite positive to begin with" since financial markets appeared to be pointing to a "remain" victory. But when northeast areas of Sunderland and Newcastle reported a surge in support for "leave," he said the mood at his party soured quickly.

Cregan said the partygoers had mostly gone home but he couldn't sleep until he saw the final result.

"I'm fearful of the result," he said. "This is the most important decision that people are voting on in my lifetime. And I don't think that many people who have cast a vote today understand what they're casting a vote on, or understand what's at stake."

-- (c) Associated Press 2016-06-24

Looking at the vote there are no surprises with Scotland. Personally I would give them independence but if they are after another referendum then the leave campaign will have just as much claim to another one, with this been so close too. Whatever the outcome the EU and its membership will not end here today.

If you think about it, if the vote is Leave then Scotland have done the right thing by overwhelmingly voting for what they want (to stay in the EU) as they couldn't very well vote "Leave" then complain afterwards that they wanted to "Remain" so now want their independence.

I think a Leave vote will lead to a 2nd Scottish referendum & the Scottish leaving the Union.

03:34 UK time. (Finally I'm wrong about this topic). The vote is not a done deal after all, as my earlier Farage post assumed. My earnest wishes for UK regardless. UK voting fooled me, and Leave might still win. Curious that some news called it before sleepy time.

Sweet- to extend for few more hours the dream that UK could still cut away its parachute and deploy the reserve. Like a fresh lottery ticket, I'll put this back under the pillow again I daydream about UK's bright future.

Looking at the vote there are no surprises with Scotland. Personally I would give them independence but if they are after another referendum then the leave campaign will have just as much claim to another one, with this been so close too. Whatever the outcome the EU and its membership will not end here today.

If you think about it, if the vote is Leave then Scotland have done the right thing by overwhelmingly voting for what they want (to stay in the EU) as they couldn't very well vote "Leave" then complain afterwards that they wanted to "Remain" so now want their independence.

I think a Leave vote will lead to a 2nd Scottish referendum & the Scottish leaving the Union.

The vote in Scotland is more than 65% to remain

HONG KONG (AP) - British pound's wild ride continues, tumbles to 5-month low after hitting 2016 high.

Yea, it looks like my daily trips to convince Wales' voters to leave has worked (wink)! Truly more exciting than a Boston tavern 200+ years ago.

"The British are coming, the British are coming!"

(I hope tomorrow finds you in your own future. Self autonomy).

Looking at the vote there are no surprises with Scotland. Personally I would give them independence but if they are after another referendum then the leave campaign will have just as much claim to another one, with this been so close too. Whatever the outcome the EU and its membership will not end here today.

If you think about it, if the vote is Leave then Scotland have done the right thing by overwhelmingly voting for what they want (to stay in the EU) as they couldn't very well vote "Leave" then complain afterwards that they wanted to "Remain" so now want their independence.

I think a Leave vote will lead to a 2nd Scottish referendum & the Scottish leaving the Union.

And can they take London with them. Vote SLNP.

Leave in the lead by over 500.000 now

Dropped to just over 438.000

After 167 results, out of 382, here are the latest figures.

It is the vote figures that count.

Areas

Remain: 51

Leave: 116

Votes

Remain: 5,846,811 (48.5%)

Leave: 6,199,790 (51.5%)

Very fluid.

208 regions now declared.

Leave V remain %'s standing still