London: In a historic move, Britain has voted to leave the European Union. This will enable the country to take greater control of its economy and its borders but it would also shatter the stability of the continental unity forged after World War II.
The decision launches what will be years of negotiations over trade, business and political links with the E.U., which will shrink to a 27-nation bloc.
Official results released early Friday show the “leave” side prevailed 52 percent to 48 percent in Thursday’s vote, which had a turnout of 72 percent.
Remain’ on 14.584 million votes, ‘Leave’ on 15.705 million after more than 90 per cent of votes counted, says ITV.
British exit, or Brexit, would deprive the 28-member EU of its second-biggest economy and one of its two main military powers, sending political shockwaves across the continent.
Nigel Farage has gone ahead and called it the ‘Independence Day’ for Britain and has even asked David Cameron to quit. The final national result is to be officially declared by UK Electoral Commission’s chief counting officer Jenny Watson from Manchester Town Hall.
German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel on Friday described Britain’s vote to leave the European Union as “a bad day for Europe”.
World financial markets dived as nearly complete results showed a 51.7/48.3 percent split for leaving. Sterling suffered its biggest one-day fall against the dollar, hitting its lowest level in three decades on market fears the decision will hit investment in the world's fifth largest economy, while hile the greenback itself slumped below 100 yen for the first time in two-and-a-half years as traders fled to safety.
The pound collapsed to a 31-year low and currency, equity and oil markets went into freefall today as projections showed Britain has voted to leave the European Union.
The "too-close-to-call and knife-edge" prediction of the opinion polls seemed to hold true as Leave grabbed 52 per cent of the vote to Remain's 48 per cent with over 70 per cent of the results in.
The BBC said that the trends indicated that the Remain side could not regain from this position and the 52-48 percent count in favour of Brexit is likely to be the final verdict of the British voters.
Far-right UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage declared victory much earlier, saying: "Dare to dream that the dawn is breaking on an independent United Kingdom
