Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Britain votes to leave Europe — but Scots in areas like North Lanarkshire wanted continental link to stay put
The UK has voted to leave the European Union after a 52-48 per cent result in Thursday’s referendum — but the local and Scottish pictures were the reverse.
Voters in Airdrie and Coatbridge contributed to a North Lanarkshire referendum result of 62 per cent favouring remaining in the European Union.
Ballot papers from across the local authority area were counted at Ravenscraig sports centre overnight after polls closed, with counting officer Paul Jukes, the council chief executive, making the declaration at 2.44am on Friday.
North Lanarkshire voters cast 95,549 votes for Remain and 59,400 for Leave. A total of 96 papers were rejected from the 155,045 counted.
Those totals were fed into the overall Scottish count at Grangemouth — and North Lanarkshire’s percentages of 62 for Remain and 38 for Leave exactly mirrored the overall national position north of the border.
Nearly 1.7million votes were cast in Scotland in favour of staying in the 28- member continental alliance, giving the highest percentage of support for Remain of any of the 12 counting regions of the UK, ahead of London and Northern Ireland.
The North Lanarkshire turnout of 60.9 per cent, from an eligible electorate of 254,567 voters, was higher than for last month’s Scottish Parliament election, where the respective polling rates in Coatbridge and Airdrie were 53 and 49 per cent.
However, it fell far below the record- breaking 2014 independence referendum in which North Lanarkshire registered the highest turnout in its history with 84.4 per cent.
North Lanarkshire was ninth from last of the 32 Scottish council areas to declare its result, and showed the joint 11th-highest level of support for Remain. Edinburgh and East Renfrewshire recorded the joint highest totals for staying in the union, at 74 per cent.
The overall UK vote totals which prompted the historic Brexit were 17,410,742 votes for Leave – a share of 51.9 per cent – compared to 16,141,241 ballots and 48.1 for Remain.