Britain votes to leave EU in historic vote that threatens bloc's future

WORLD / Politics

Britain votes to leave EU in historic vote that threatens bloc’s future

A woman walks past the Houses of Parliament and the Big Ben clock tower, on the day of the EU referendum, in central London, Thursday. | REUTERS

Reuters

Jun 24, 2016

LONDON – Britain voted to quit the European Union in a historic vote, with the ballot count Friday plunging the bloc into uncharted waters.

The pound slumped to its lowest in 31 years and there was turmoil on global stock markets.

Bookmakers adjusted their odds to reflect an even chance of Brexit as the Leave camp grabbed an early lead, before results from Glasgow and parts of London helped the Remain side to inch ahead as a nail-biting national count proceeded.

“One can’t deny it’s a real kick to the British establishment because all three party leaders have favoured a Remain vote, business on the whole favoured a Remain vote, the financial leaders have favoured a Remain vote. The people have not taken their advice,” Professor Vernon Bogdanor, a politics expert who tutored Cameron at Oxford University, told the British Broadcasting Corp.

A vote to break with Europe could usher in deep uncertainty over trade and investment and fuel the rise of anti-EU movements across the continent.

Initial results suggested those in favour of quitting the EU were outperforming pollsters’ expectations. They scored close to 70 percent of the vote in Hartlepool in northeast England and in Basildon, near London.

It was not clear whether an expected pro-EU vote in the capital would be sufficient to redress the balance.

“I think this could be extremely close. There is a disaffected vote,” said John McDonnell, finance spokesman for the opposition Labour Party, which had favoured a vote to Remain.

“People are concerned about how they have been treated with austerity and how their wages have been frozen for about seven years. A lots of people’s grievances have come out and we have got to start listening to them.”

Sterling swung wildly, initially rising on expectations of a Remain win but then tumbling by nearly 10 cents.

“Markets are very nervy at the moment,” said Joe Rundle, head of trading at ETX Capital in London. “If Leave wins there will be carnage for cable,” he said, referring to the sterling-to-dollar exchange rate.

Prime Minister David Cameron had urged Britons to vote Remain, warning that the alternative was a leap in the dark that would hurt trade and investment, bring about a self-inflicted recession, undermine the pound and push up shopping bills and the cost of holidays.

Advocates of going it alone said a Brexit would invigorate the economy by freeing business from suffocating EU bureaucracy, and allow the country to recover its sovereignty and regain control of immigration.

Britain’s 27 EU partners are anxiously watching the vote, fearing the departure of the bloc’s second biggest economy would weaken Europe’s global clout and fuel the rise of euroskeptic movements in other countries.