Anxious UK and Brexit Poll Results

 

Many in the United Kingdom are so anxious about results of the Brexit referendum -- deciding whether the country should leave the European Union -- after the polls closed at 10 p.m. local time, but the final tally won't be announced for hours.

Gibraltar, the UK's overseas territory on the southwest tip of Spain, has voted to remain in the EU by a big margin -- and is the first area to declare a result. Voter turnout in Gibraltar, which has been a British territory since 1713, was high at 84 percent and the vast majority of voters -- 96 percent -- voted to remain in the EU, while 4 percent voted to leave.

Nigel Farage, leader of the British right-wing party UKIP, who supports a Brexit, has already said that he thinks the "Remain" camp will win. "It looks like Remain will edge it," he told Sky News.

The referendum is not legally binding and Parliament would still have to repeal the 1972 act that allowed the U.K. to join the E.U.

Heavy rain, lightning and floods hit large parts of the U.K. as residents headed to the polls. London's Fire Brigade received up to 300 calls overnight in three hours, the kind of volume it usually receives in a day. Flooding has caused relocation of at least two polling stations in suburban London. 

 "Our control staff and firefighters have been working tirelessly through the night and into this morning to deal with the huge volume of weather-related calls that we have received," the brigade said in a statement.

Among 46.5 million people voting in the referendum, scores could be affected by the weather conditions. Travel chaos is expected throughout the day with disruptions already affecting rail and subway networks, especially in London. 

 Turnout was expected to be high, with a record of 46.5 million entitled to vote in polling stations, which were open today between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. local time.

Recent polls in Britain tend to be relatively unreliable but the latest Ipsos Mori poll out this morning, and based on telephone interviews, found 52 percent of people wanted to remain in the European Union and 48 percent wanted to leave. At least two other recent polls, Opinium and TNS, have the “leave” camp at 1 point and 2 points ahead of the “remain” camp.

Prime Minister David Cameron and opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn have already cast their votes, along with former London Mayor Boris Johnson, who has been campaigning for the U.K. to leave the union.