A British flag hangs in the window of Myers of Keswick, a British grocery store, June 24, 2016 in New York City.
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Jun 24, 2016- Prime Minister David Cameron is to step down by October after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union.
People scrambled to sign up as registration closed to make it the biggest ballot in British history – almost 150,000 more than those signed up to vote in last year’s general election.
Nicola Sturgeon is the First Minister of Scotland–the head of the Scottish government–and she released a statement saying, “As things stand, Scotland faces the prospect of being taken out of the European Union against our will”.
The SNP has previously said a second Independence Referendum would likely be called if Scotland votes to Remain in the European Union, but the rest of the United Kingdom votes to Leave.
A guide to possible legal and business implications and potential disruption to their companies has prompted K&L Gates to create a suite of resources to bridge any concerns brought on by the vote to leave.
Northern Ireland however has voted in favour of remaining in the EU.
Irish republican party Sinn Fein have said the European Union referendum result should trigger a poll on a united Ireland too, but the Northern Ireland secretary, Theresa Villiers, has said she doesn’t think the criteria have been met for a so-called “border poll”.
Arguments became increasingly heated in the weeks leading up to the vote as the “Leave” and “Remain” teams traded barbs about immigration and racism, wealth and privilege. The vista of a sharply divided country with particular fault lines opening up between London and other English communities was repeatedly raised by Labour MPs reacting to the results.
The result showed high rates of euroscepticism in Labour’s former heartlands in the north and in farming areas in eastern England which have seen high numbers of arrivals of migrant workers from eastern Europe.
The North East voted to Leave 58% to 42%, as did the North West with 53.7% Leave votes to 46.3% Remain. “Our latest poll suggests that Leave is in a stronger position than Remain but it should be noted that in the Scottish independence referendum and the 1995 Quebec independence referendum, there was a late swing to the status quo and it is possible that the same will happen here”.
The number of votes cast during those campaigns stood at 118,729 and 92,899 respectively.
There were also major divisions between predominantly pro-EU younger voters and more anti-EU older voters, but the key trend Curtice noted was the split by education level.
And education and class also played a big factor in determining the vote.
And that’s just one, of many questions. “Certainly for people voting to come out, immigration is very high on their list of concerns but there is also something else here too, a real sense of pessimism among people and their place in the United Kingdom”.
The decision has already led to the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron.
In London, Boris Johnson, maybe the next prime minister of Britain, or what’s left of it, smiled broadly beneath his unkempt blond mop.
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Among other surveys carried out on poll eve, a survey by ComRes for the Daily Mail and ITV News gave Remain a 6-point lead over Leave – on 48 per cent compared to 42 per cent.
