Britons vote in tight EU membership referendum
and even a launderette and a windmill. In London and southeast England, many voters braved torrential rains and thunderstorms to have their say, but several polling stations had to be relocated due to flooding.
The referendum asks: “Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?”
Commentators suggest Brexit could trigger a constitutional crisis in Britain, prompting another Scottish independence referendum and raising tensions in Northern Ireland, where the prospect of a hard border with Ireland has been mooted.
There are also fears it could prompt other EU countries, disillusioned with how Brussels has handed the eurozone and migrant crises, to try to break away.
Polls close at 2100 GMT and, while ea rly i ndicat ions of results could come from around 0200 GMT today, the final decla rat ion is not l i kely unti l around 0800 GMT.
On the streets of London, 57-year-old estate manager John Thompson said he was hoping for a “Leave” victory. “I value autonomy,” he said. “It is just life, freedom and autonomy and I don’t think I am going to get that under Europe – not the kind I want.”
Ben Giddens, a 27-year-old who works as a drag queen in the capital, expressed frustration with how the campaign had been run. “It’s a media circus on both sides,” he said.
“I’ll be glad tomorrow when it’s over – well, provided it goes the way I want it to.”
Thousands of people also queued to vote in the British overseas territory of Gibraltar, which borders Spain.
Gibraltar’s Mayor Adolfo Canepa said he was worried about the future if Britain left the EU. “I know what it was like to live for all those years when the frontier was closed and I wouldn’t like to put my children and grandchildren through that again.”
The often acrimonious campaign has exposed a wide gulf between Britons on the country’s often troubled four-decade membership of the European club.
Prime Minister David Cameron, who faces calls to resign in the event of a “Leave” victory, voted early without making any comment. At his final rally on Wednesday, the Conservative leader implored people to stay in the bloc, invoking Britain’s cigar-chomping wartime prime minister Winston Churchill.
“Churchill didn’t give up on European democracy . . . and we shouldn’t walk away,” he said.
Nigel Farage, leader of the antiEU UK Independence Party, said as he voted that “Leave” had “a really good, strong chance. It’s all about turnout, it’s all about passion, it’s all about who cares enough to go out and vote.”
EU leaders have warned Britain – the world’s fifth largest economy – there would be no turning back from a vote to quit. “Out is out,” European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker has said, dismissing any talk of a post-vote renegotiation of Britain’s membership terms.
A British withdrawal would trigger a lengthy exit negotiation, leading to the loss of unfettered access to its partners in the EU single market and forcing the country to strike its own trade accords across the world.
The referendum battle had paused for three days after the brutal murder of Jo Cox, a pro”Remain” lawmaker and mother of two who was stabbed, shot and left bleeding to death on the pavement a week before the vote.
Thomas Mair, 52, has been charged with Cox’s murder and had his trial set for November at a court hearing yesterday.
EU leaders open a summit on Tuesday to deal with the outcome and decide how to cope with the risk of similar referendums on the continent.