U.S. Treasury yields fell sharply as investors rushed to the safety of U.S. government debt, while other safe-haven assets like gold XAU= and the Japanese yen jumped JPY=. He announced his resignation outside of 10 Downing Street this morning. But I do believe it’s in the national interest to have a period of stability, and then the new leadership required. Until those talks are completed, Britain will remain a member of the EU. He was forced into calling it by people on the right of his Conservative Party, who have always wanted to get out of Europe. June 23, he predicted, would be remembered as the U.K.’s “independence day”.
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Authorities ranging from the International Monetary Fund to the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of England have warned that a British exit will reverberate through a world economy that is only slowly recovering from the global economic crisis.
His decision not to stand down immediately appeared created to reassure markets already rocking from the overnight vote to leave the EU. Once triggered, the process has a two-year time limit.
But many will feel that he bears much of the responsibility for those divisions, not least because of the way he chose to campaign for Remain, aggressively questioning the judgement and even the integrity of those who stood against him.
“I will do everything I can as prime minister to steady the ship over the coming weeks and months”. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier described the news as “truly sobering” and “a sad day for Europe and the United Kingdom”.
The vote threatens the unity of the United Kingdom, too.
The main fear in many European capitals is that either way, the result could trigger a domino effect of referendums in other countries.
Leaders in Northern Ireland are also going to call for a referendum on joining the rest of Ireland, which is part of the EU.
Cameron’s successor as prime minister will have to deal with the fallout.
By 5.20 am (0420 GMT), almost 90 percent of the vote had been counted, making Leave’s lead virtually impossible to reverse.
England and Wales voted strongly for Brexit, while London, Scotland and Northern Ireland voted in favor of staying within the 28-nation bloc.
Britain has voted to break out of the European Union, striking a thunderous blow against the bloc and spreading alarm through markets as sterling plummeted to a 31-year low against the dollar.
“Greater instability will lead to job uncertainty, falling investment, and greater pressure on public services”.
But that changed rapidly as preliminary results from the vote were declared.
Many global banks and brokerages have long used Britain as the entry point to the European Union because of its trusted legal system and institutions that operate in English, the language of worldwide finance. And this time those poorer, working-class cities and towns won out.
All anti-European MPs, a majority of whom belong to Mr Cameron’s Conservatives, will want the government to impose immediate border controls and restrictions of immigrants; they will claim that doing anything less would pervert the expressed wish of the electorate. Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh and inner London all delivered strong Remain votes.
Labour MP Kate Hoey, the Leave campaigner, cast further doubt on the futures of Mr Cameron and George Osborne, despite admitting the result also exposed a “huge disconnect” in her party. Central banks were standing ready to provide additional emergency liquidity on Friday and possibly to intervene in foreign exchange markets.
Cameron issued a referendum day plea on Twitter for Britons to vote to “remain” while his Conservative Party rival Boris Johnson urged the country to “leave”.
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“You can see it all across southern Europe and you can see it, alas, in this country as well”, he said.
