Friday, June 24, 2016

Britain to Leave the EU With BBC Forecasting 'Remain' Votes Can No Longer Win Referendum
9news.com.au

June 24, 2016: Leader of the UK Independence Party Nigel Farage said he would 'dare to dream that the dawn is breaking on an independent United Kingdom', as 'leave' edges ahead in the UK's EU referendum.

Britain will leave the EU after votes reached a tipping point, meaning "Remain" can no longer win the Brexit referendum, UK media has forecast.

Votes to "Leave" Europe have surged to what has been called an unassailable lead with 309 out of 382 results declared.

Markets are in turmoil with the British pound plunging to its lowest point since 1985 as the world reacts to the shock decision.

Labour's Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said the Bank of England may need to intervene as the pound continues to slide.

One of the spearheads of the Leave campaign Nigel Farage has declared victory despite the votes still being tallied.

Farage told supporters the result would "go down in our history as our independence day".

The anti-EU campaigner appeared to concede defeat at the start of the polling but has now changed his tune.

"If the predications now are right this will be a victory for real people, a victory for ordinary people, a victory for decent people," he said.

BBC correspondent Nick Robinson said the nation was now in uncharted waters.

"This is as close to a revolution as we've experienced in my lifetime. And it's only just begun," he said.

The Guardian reports if "Leave" officially wins the vote, Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn may call British prime minister David Cameron to demand he resign.

Earlier, news that the vote would be much closer than expected sent the British pound plunging up to 10 percent – its largest fall against the US dollar since 1985.

A hedge fund manager in charge of several billion dollars told The Financial Times his firm estimated at least USD $6bn had been traded over the sterling-dollar currency cross.

The FTSE 100 index, a list of Britain's largest 100 companies, is expected to open six percent down if the UK wakes up to a successful vote Leave.

No country has ever left the 28-member EU, so nobody truly knows the economic impact should Britain perform a Brexit.

However former Tory business secretary Vince Cable told The Telegraph today that a vote to leave would result in "a financial bloodbath".

The Leave camp were always expected to do well in the industrial heartland of northeast England, but the sheer scale of the leave vote has stunned experts.

The "Brexiteers" showed unexpected strength from the very first count, romping home in the northern city of Sunderland, winning 61 to 39 percent.

In neighbouring Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the margin of victory for the "Remain" camp was much smaller than expected, with just 50.7 percent of voters choosing to stay with the bloc.

The result reverses what many had been predicting just hours before, including the Leave vote's most prominent supporters.

Nigel Farage, leader of the pro-Leave UK Independence Party, had told Sky News that it "looks like Remain will edge it" just as polls closed after a vitriolic battle focused on immigration, the economy and Britain's very identity.

"Win or lose this battle, we will win this war … The Eurosceptic genie is out of the bottle," he said.

He later backtracked, saying he wasn’t conceding and that he "hoped he’d be made a fool of".

A record 46.5 million people registered to vote in the once-in-a-generation referendum, many of them faced torrential rain, floods, and cancelled trains to take a momentous decision that is being watched across Europe and the world.

© ninemsn 2016

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