Shocks galore in Labour heartlands after voters turn out in droves to give Leave camp plenty of stunning victories

THE UK is a divided country today after the EU referendum result went down to the wire.

Leave voters across the North East of England delivered shockwaves as they voted in droves to quit the EU.

At many of the counts where they scored stunning victories, the cheers of their supporters drowned out counting officers attempting to give declarations.

As the morning wore on, they were closely followed by other traditionally Labour voting working class areas, affluent communities and commuter belt towns on the fringes of London.

TV pundits tried to make sense of Sunderland’s early victory for the Brexiters – by a 61-38 per cent margin – after polls predicting the Remain camp would narrowly win the referendum.

Defeat in one of Labour’s heartlands was followed by a string of losses for Remain in the Midlands, Essex and Wales.

Closely-fought Worcester, which pundits said would be a litmus test of whether Britain would stay or leave the UK, fell to Leave by a margin of 53.7 per cent to 46.3 per cent.

Leave’s victories in Coventry and Watford, which had been expected to vote for Remain, also spelled disaster for pro-EU hopes.

The anti-EU camp won in affluent South Buckinghamshire by 570 votes, one of the closest margins. In Hertsmere, the anti-EU vote won by 939 votes.

It was with a touch of understatement that a Labour Party source admitted halfway through the morning: “It’s going to be bloody close.”

Ukip’s Richard Elvin, in the North East, said of the initial Sunderland result: “We were hopeful of winning but we didn’t dare to think we could win by such a big margin.”

He said voters locally had not been willing to put up with “scaremongering” from local car firm Nissan about the threat to jobs if the UK left the EU.

Swansea was firmly expected to vote to stay in the EU, not least because the area recently opened a new university campus with