A victory for “out” could unleash turmoil on financial markets.
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The referendum result will be very close, prime minister David Cameron admitted in an interview with the Financial Times.
French President Francois Hollande said a vote to leave would be irreversible and could seriously jeopardize British access to the EU’s prized single market. “We are a special country, one whose language and values, whose influence is felt the world over”, Cameron said.
Thinking about grabbing a cheap flight to another European Union country while visiting Britain?
Both camps have been accused of using unfounded assertions and scare tactics. As each side sought to play its last trump cards, the pro-EU “Britain Stronger in Europe” campaign issued a final poster of a door leading into a dark void with the slogan: “Leave and there’s no going back”. The Electoral Commission says a record number of 46,499,537 voters were registered for the referendum by Tuesday.
Separately, George Soros, the billionaire who bet against the pound in 1992, said a vote to leave would trigger a bigger, more disruptive devaluation in Britain’s currency than the fall on Black Wednesday.
Most economists predict that the immediate aftermath of a Brexit vote would be sharp, cutting into economic growth and weakening the British pound.
Britain will have less clout with remaining EU members, and it will not be party to EU negotiations with other states, but it will also not be limited by the need for consensus within the EU when it makes its policies and it may be able to strike deals that are more in line with its particular interests.
The vote on the question is not legally binding but British Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to abide by it.
He says “this is a crucial time”.
Its bigger rival, The Sun, came out last week calling on people to back Brexit.
This fell away after campaigning was paused for two days following Thursday’s killing of pro-EU lawmaker Jo Cox of the main opposition Labour party.
Major, Britain’s Prime Minister from 1990 to 1997, described the “Leave” camp as “gravediggers” of Britain’s prosperity.
Leave: Brussels imposes too much red tape on British business, according to the Leave camp, which says the top 100 regulations cost Britain’s economy more than 33 billion per year. The pound rose to its highest point since early January in trading Tuesday, hitting $1.47.
It was not just markets showing concern.
David Cameron, Jeremy Corbyn and Tim Farron are addressing rallies arguing the United Kingdom will be better off and safer with a Remain vote in Thursday’s poll.
When will the result be announced?
Leaving the European Union would leave Great Britain diminished on the world stage.
He also insisted that the result would not help him either way.
For me, security is another key issue in this debate, and I attached great weight to the fact that, known Eurosceptic, Theresa May backed the deal that the Prime Minister brought back from the European Union in February, believing that we will be safer within the EU.
The Leave camp had “failed to quash the nearly ubiquitous perception that it is the riskier of the two options”, he said. Bookmakers have shortened their odds on a “Remain” win.
A Brexit vote could unleash turmoil on foreign exchange, equity and bond markets, lead to a political crisis in Britain and fragment the post-Cold War European order.
The EU would have to weather the exit of its No.2 economy representing $US2.9 trillion ($A3.89 trillion) of its gross domestic product, the only European financial capital to rival NY and one of its only two nuclear powers, while Britain’s economy could stall.
Some 1,285 bosses who together employ 1.75 million people have signed a letter to The Times newspaper appealing for voters not to risk the job prospects of their children and grandchildren.
Britons were asked to choose whether the country should stay in the European Union or leave in the first vote on Britain’s links with Europe for more than 40 years.
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The UK is getting ready to hold a referendum on whether the country will leave the European Union, a process often referred to as “Brexit”.
