INDEFINITE LEAVE TO REMAIN
Rain and floods bring chaos to Britain’s biggest day in history: Millions battle through torrential downpours to cast their EU Referendum vote as latest poll shows result is on a knife edge
- Today’s big vote is only the third time in British history a nationwide referendum has taken place
- Kingston Council in south west London has moved two polling stations after they were inundated with water
- Survey gives the Remain camp a lead of six points in the referendum polls – but 11 per cent were still undecided
- Leave campaign’s message that Britain can ‘take control’ of its destiny had the biggest cut-through with voters
- In a slew of other polls, Leave either led or the contest was neck and neck – and poor weather could help them
- Polling stations in churches, schools and even windmills opened at 7am and votes will be counted overnight
Millions of Britons have defied the wet weather to queue in torrential rain and even wade through deep water to vote in today’s historic EU referendum as a final poll revealed the result is on a knife edge.
Several polling stations were closed in London because of floods as Britain was finally having its say on whether to stay in the EU or cut our ties with Brussels after a gruelling 10-week campaign.
Thundery showers caused chaos across London and the south of England overnight and could potentially push the result towards a Brexit because polling data is clear that Leave voters are less likely to be put off by the bad weather than Remain voters.
Today long queues snaked down the road from many polling stations as voters rushed to have their say when the polls opened at 7am,
David Cameron voted in Westminster with his wife Samantha this morning with the final EU referendum polls making the contest too close to call.
An exclusive survey for the Daily Mail and ITV News, gave the Remain camp a lead of six points, by 48 per cent to 42 per cent – but 11 per cent of electors said they were still undecided.
The In camp are ahead of Leave by 52 per cent to 48 per cent, according to an Ipsos Mori survey for the Evening Standard this afternoon. To add further uncertainty to the outcome, 12 per cent of those polled said they could switch sides as they head for the polling booth.
But according to an online poll by Populus the Remain campaign is at 55 per cent compared to Leave on 45 per cent.
Today’s EU vote is a historic day for Britain because it is only the third nationwide referendum ever to take place in the UK. A record 46.5million are registered to vote.
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Willing to wait: Queues formed outside polling stations across many parts of the UK today people had their say despite terrible weather across swathes of the south, including here in West Hampstead, London
PM: David Cameron and his wife Samantha leave their Westminster polling station after voting in the EU referendum
Leaders: Jeremy Corbyn arrived to cast his vote at a polling station in Islington at around 9am, while Nigel Farage grins outside his polling station at his local primary school
Change of venue: A flooded polling station in Chessington, Surrey, this morning that had to be closed and moved elsewhere due to heavy overnight rain
With turnout key to the result, torrential rain storms in Remain stronghold London meant the unseasonally bad weather could deter voters casting their ballots.
David Cameron ignored questions about the weather, saying only ‘good morning’ to the gathered media from across the world, as he and his wife Samantha cast their votes at Methodist Hall in Westminster.
Jeremy Corbyn arrived in positive mood to cast his vote at Pakeman primary school in his Islington constituency.
Asked if he was feeling confident the Labour leader smiled and said: ‘Extremely, it’s a very good day.’
On the outcome of the referendum he joked: ‘You could either check the wind or check the bookies,’ adding, ‘the bookies usually get it right’.
He acknowledged the odds on his election as party leader last year had not been favourable, grinning as he said: ‘I cost them (bookies) a lot of money.’
Nigel Farage was the first party leader to vote this morning – but refused to discuss why he missed the crucial final TV debate last night.
The announcement was met with surprise, with many expressing concern for Farage and his family as many believed only something truly terrible would make the politician pull out of the key debate.
However, it has now emerged that Mr Farage had simply decided to go to dinner with his eldest son Sam, who he hadn’t sen for nine months.
Speaking outside his home in Kent today he said: ‘Actually I do think we are in with a very strong chance, I do genuinely.
‘But it’s all about turnout and those soft remainers staying at home.’ He did not elaborate on his reasons for missing last night’s Channel 4 debate, saying only it was ‘for family reasons’.
SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has said she is hopeful of a large turnout in Scotland in the European Union referendum as she cast her vote.
Accompanied by husband and SNP chief executive Peter Murrell at Broomhouse Community Hall in Glasgow, Scotland’s First Minister greeted voters at the polling station and posed for pictures.
She said: ‘I’m feeling really optimistic and have just voted with my head and my heart.
‘From what I could see on social media the weather is very patchy across the UK.
‘I saw reports of people turning up to vote in pouring rain, but it’s blue skies and sunshine in Glasgow – as always – so it’s perfect voting weather.’
Voting got under way at 7am in a ballot which could itself trigger a second vote on Scottish independence if the UK votes to leave.
Treacherous: A voter hitches up her skirt having waded through deep water to vote at Grange Primary School in Newham, east London
Deluge: A flooded car park outside a polling station in Chessington, south London, where people struggled to vote this morning
Record numbers: Voters queue to enter a polling station in Reading at 7am as 46.5m have the chance to vote today – the highest number in history
Historic day: Voters in Islington, north London, arrive to vote as polls for the EU referendum opened today as Britain finally gets its say over whether to stay or leave – but the poor weather could hit turnout
Big day: A voter enters a polling station for the Referendum on the European Union in Heald Green, Stockport as up to 46.5million have the right to go to the polls
Best of British: Chelsea pensioners file off after casting their votes at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea, west London
In or out? Britons will today answer this question – whether they want to remain in the EU or leave
Showdown: David Cameron and Boris Johnson criss-crossed the country as they campaigned yesterday
Rising waters in the south-east has led to the closure of several polling stations today.
The first voters to turn up to their local polling booth in Devon Way, Chessington, Surrey, were able to get inside to vote after wading through huge puddles first.
However heavy rain persisted and the puddles eventually enveloped the inside of the building – forcing council bosses to relocate the polling booth to the nearby Hook Centre.
Kingston Council also shut the polling station at the Shiraz Mirza community hall in Malden Manor, telling voters to instead head to the Lawrence Avenue Children’s Centre.
Dozens of voters were unable to have their say in the EU referendum today following an error at a polling station.
Some residents in Leighton Buzzard, Beds., were not included on the registration list and were turned away when they turned up to cast their vote.
Angry locals hassled MPs outside Linslade polling station for the ‘total shambles’, and Central Beds Council eventually made arrangements for voters who’d missed out.
Out of 3,754 polling stations in the capital, five opened late, a spokeswoman for London Councils said.
In Newham, east London, two stations opened slightly later due to issues with staff travel and flooding, and one station in Tower Hamlets, east London, and one in Redbridge, north-east London, were also affected.
Barking and Dagenham Council in east London apologised when a polling station had to be closed after a water main burst.
A council spokesman said: ‘Due to flooding caused as a result of a burst water main, the polling station at St Thomas More Church, Longbridge Road, has had to be relocated.
‘We are glad to say that we were able to notify and signpost affected residents first thing this morning.’
The polling station has been relocated to two sites within walking distance.
Big crowd: Journalists and members of the public photograph the Prime Minister and his wife as they cast their votes
Leave: Brexit campaigner Michael Gove and his wife Sarah Vine arrive at the arrive at their west London polling station this morning
Scotland’s First Minister and Leader of the SNP Nicola Sturgeon poses for photographers after voting at a polling station at Broomhouse Community Hall in east Glasgow
A group of nuns smile and wave as they leave their local polling station in north London earlier today
Abroad: Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo and his wife Justine vote in the EU Referendum at a polling station in Gibraltar
Exclusive Mail polling shows that the Leave campaign’s key message that now is the time for Britain to ‘take control’ of its own destiny has had the biggest cut-through with voters.
Some 44 per cent said it made them more likely to vote to quit the Brussels club – outstripping the claim by Project Fear that leaving is a leap in the dark.
In a slew of other polls, Leave either led or the contest was neck and neck. The ComRes poll for the Mail reveals Britain is a divided country with over 45s and those in the North breaking heavily for Leave.
All age groups below 45 appear in favour of staying with 64 per cent of those aged 25 to 34 wanting to stay and 27 per cent opting to go. Among the 55 to 65 age group, however, just 31 per cent want to Remain and 55 per cent want to Leave.
In the South 38 per cent want to Leave while 51 per cent want to stay. But in the North, it is 41 per cent Remain and 50 per cent Leave. The Midlands is almost exactly balanced with 45 per cent support for Remain and 44 per cent for Leave.
Overall, after ‘don’t knows’ are counted, Remain would lead 54 per cent to 46 per cent. The poll of 1,032 adults was conducted over the weekend, during part of which the campaign was halted after the murder of the Labour MP Jo Cox.
Some 17 per cent say that they may still change their mind.
The reputation of key politicians has been hit. The number of voters citing David Cameron as important in their decision has fallen from 34 per cent in May to 26 per cent now.
Only a third of Britons say Mr Cameron would be the best person to negotiate Britain’s withdrawal from the EU as Prime Minister in the event of Brexit, though this is higher than anyone else.
In a blow for Chancellor George Osborne, his warning that house prices will be lower in the event of Brexit made people more likely to vote Leave than Remain – by 17 per cent to 20 per cent.
Last night a flurry of eve-of-referendum polls suggested the result is still too close to call, with TNS giving the Brexit camp a 43 per cent to 41 per cent advantage.
A YouGov poll for The Times gave Remain a lead of 51 to 49. FTI Consulting gave Remain the edge by 51.4 per cent to 48.6 per cent once ‘don’t knows’ are taken out.
Other polls show the result of today’s referendum is on a knife-edge. A final YouGov survey for The Times gave the Remain camp a slender two-point lead over Brexit, but with 8 per cent undecided, pollsters say the outcome is too close to call.
Two further polls by Opinium and TNS showed the reverse, with Leave on 51 per cent and Remain on 49 per cent.
In its final survey, Opinium said after talking to 3,000 people the referendum was a ‘statistical dead heat’ with Leave on 45 per cent and Remain on 44 per cent – meaning after taking margin of error into account it was impossible to pick a winner
Opinium’s surveys during June have showed a small overall drift toward Leave as undecided voters made up their minds but the pollster said the race was still too close to call
Boris Johnson gives a thumbs up as he leaves Selby, North Yorkshire, on a hectic day of campaigning
David Cameron spoke alongside Lib Dem leader Tim Farron at a Remain rally in Birmingham this evening
Opinium Research recorded a tiny lead for Brexit in its final survey of 3,000 voters this week as it found 45 per cent backed Leave and 44 per cent backed Remain.
But after taking into account the margin of error in the study, the firm declared it impossible to predict a winner.
A week ago, Opinium had the referendum tied at 44 per cent each while at the start of June the pollster had Remain ahead 43-41.
The poll fits with the mixed found by all of the polling firms in the last week of the race, with some results showing small leads for either side while other showed a tie.
By contrast, betting markets have continued to show Remain as the strong favourite as the race enters its final hours.
Adam Drummond, of Opinium Research said: ‘This really is ”too close to call” territory with undecided voters holding the balance of the vote in their hands.
‘Although referendum campaigns normally see a move back to the status quo as we get closer to polling day, this hasn’t yet shown up in our polls and the Remain camp will have to hope that it happens in the polling booth itself if Britain is to stay in the European Union.’
In its latest poll, Opinium interviewed 3,011 voters between Monday and Wednesday.
David Cameron was greeted by school children as his whistlestop tour took him to Bloxham near Banbury yesterday in his final push for votes before the referendum
Boris Johnson was mobbed as he took the Vote Leave campaign’s final push to Selby in North Yorkshire
The final day of the referendum campaign has seen the main contenders criss-crossing the country to appear at a string of eve-of-poll rallies.
David Cameron joined forces with former PM Sir John Major and Labour’s Harriet Harman for a rally in Bristol this morning.
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson has visited the famous Billingsgate Fish market as he traversed the country in a Vote Leave helicopter.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn addressed activists in central London, while planes trailing Remain banners staged a flypast at the Houses of Parliament.
During the rally in Bristol, Mr Cameron urged voters to stick with Brussels to ensure a ‘bigger better Britain’.
He rejected Leave claims that Britain would be ‘shackled to a corpse’ if it chose to stick in the EU, telling supporters in Bristol the Remain case could be summed up in the single word: ‘Together’.
What’s he playing at? On the eve of the vote he’s campaigned for his entire political life, Nigel Farage pulls out of crunch referendum TV debate ‘to have dinner with his son’
Nigel Farage pulled out of last night’s final, crucial television debate on today’s EU referendum so he could ‘have dinner with his son’, it has been revealed.
Farage, who has campaigned for the UK to leave the European Union his whole political life, told Channel 4 he would not be attending the evening’s debate due to ‘family reasons’.
The announcement was met with surprise, with many expressing concern for Farage and his family as many believed only something truly terrible would make the politician pull out of the key debate.
However, it has now emerged that Mr Farage had simply decided to go to dinner with his eldest son Sam.
Nigel Farage outside his home as he heads out to vote this morning. But he ducked out of a TV debate on the eve of the referendum he has been demanding for years
The UKIP leader had a meal with his son Sam yesterday evening, rather than join a discussion on Channel 4
A source said: ‘He hadn’t seen him for nine months so it was between that or being on against the founder of Ukip who calls him racist. It was a no brainer.’
It is unclear why he had not seen Sam, who works at KPMG, for nine months.
He had recently told ITV: ‘I’ve got a son who works for one of the corporates and he’s been told: ‘You must vote to remain part of this otherwise terrible things will happen’.’
Both Farage’s sons work in the City.
Farage was scheduled to appear alongside a number of high profile guests from both sides of the campaign, including former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell, Tory peer Michael Heseltine, former Tory MP Louise Mensch – and Delia Smith, who slammed Ukip’s most recent Brexit poster as ‘anti-human’.
The popular television cook called the unveiling of the poster – which which depicts a snaking line of hundreds of immigrants arriving in Europe – as the ‘darkest moment’ of the EU campaign.
Ms Smith, speaking during the first segment of the programme which largely focused on how each side had run their campaigns, said: ‘It’s got darker and darker.
‘I really think its darkest moment was when we saw the poster.
‘I do not think it was just offensive. It was anti-human.’
Nigel Farage announced he would not take part in the live Channel 4 discussion just hours before it was due to start, the broadcaster said. A spokesman said he had pulled out because of ‘family reasons’
Speaking in central London, Mr Farage said: ‘I apologise for the timing and I apologise for the fact that it was able to be used by those who wish us harm.
‘But I can’t apologise for the truth. And after all, this was a photograph your newspaper carried, this was a photograph that all newspapers carried, it is an example of what is wrong inside the European Union.’
Ukip had offered their MEP Steven Woolfe to take the place of Mr Farage the broadcaster declined, the party said.
The debate was one of the last opportunities for the Remain and Leave camps to put forward their arguments before polls open at 7am today.
The 90-minute discussion, hosted by Jeremy Paxman, addressed the key issues of the referendum, including the economy, immigration, sovereignty and security.
However, tensions between the two sides often boiled over, and at times it seemed Paxman was struggling keep his rolling stage of panelists on topic.
At one point, a visibly annoyed Paxman told Eurovision winner Sandie Shaw: ‘We are trying to discuss something else, and you are going on about music.’
The panelists were equally tetchy as they continually spoke over each other.
Television cook Delia Smith was at the debate, sitting with ‘Remain’ supporters
Delia Smith said the unveiling of this poster was the ‘darkest moment’ of the EU campaign
Sheila Hancock, pictured with Simon Schama, Steve Hilton and Selina Scott, won praise from fellow Remain campaigners for her impassioned defence of the European Union during the debate
Mr Hilton – who used to work as David Cameron’s director of strategy – was later called out as a hypocrite for having a go at ‘un-elected bureaucrats’.
He was not the only one: former chancellor and Leave campaigners Nigel Lawson’s fears over Britain becoming a ‘colony’ of a United States of Europe were met with the point he lives in France.
At one point, Selina Scott – a Leave supporter – suggested that if the referendum did not end with the UK leaving the EU, she would never vote again.
‘Why should I bother?’ she asked.
The final push: Cameron, Johnson and Corbyn criss-cross the country in last frantic round of referendum campaigning
The big beasts of the EU referendum battle were yesterday engaged in a final frantic round of campaigning on the eve of the crucial poll.
David Cameron joined forces with former PM Sir John Major and Labour‘s Harriet Harman for a rally in Bristol before travelling to Oxfordshire, Banbury and on to Birmingham.
Meanwhile, Boris Johnson kicked off his day with a visit to the famous Billingsgate Fish market as he traversed the country in a Vote Leave helicopter.
6.15pm: David Cameron made his final pitch to voters in Birmingham, appearing with Gordon Brown and leading politicians from across the political spectrum at an end of campaign rally
6pm: Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron urged voters to vote Remain at a speech in Birmingham this evening
5.30pm: Boris Johnson stopped off at the George Pub in Darlington to pour a pint and press the case for Vote Leave as he scrambled around the country making his final pitch
5.30pm: David Cameron gives a thumbs up as he visits the Jaguar Land Rover factory in Solihull
4.30pm: David Cameron received a noisy welcome from school children as he arrived at the Warriner School in Bloxham, near Banbury
The ex-mayor of London then headed north, visiting Selby and Darlington before signing off his campaign.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn addressed activists in central London, while planes trailing Remain banners staged a flypast at the Houses of Parliament.
During the rally in Bristol, Mr Cameron urged voters to stick with Brussels to ensure a ‘bigger better Britain’.
He rejected Leave claims that Britain would be ‘shackled to a corpse’ if it chose to stick in the EU, telling supporters in Bristol the Remain case could be summed up in the single word: ‘Together’.
2.30pm: The Vote Leave campaign arrived in Selby, North Yorkshire as Boris Johnson pressed the case for Brexit with just a few hours until the polls opened
2.19pm: Planes carrying pro-Remain banners staged a fly-past at the Houses of Parliament this afternoon
2pm: David Cameron and Harriet Harman met farmer David Christensen on Kington Hill Farm in Abingdon, Oxfordshire as he continued his campaign this afternoon
‘If we want a bigger economy and more jobs, we are better if we do it together,’ the PM said.
‘If we want to fight climate change, we are better if we do it together. If we want to win against the terrorists and keep our country safe, we are better if we do it together.’
Sir John took a swipe at Mr Johnson and Justice Secretary Michael Gove as ‘gravediggers of our prosperity’, suggesting he had ‘expected better’ from them.
Quitting the EU would not stem immigration and risked creating a broken Britain, he insisted.
Leaving would be a ‘disproportionate’ response to migration concerns and the country would live to regret it for a ‘long time to come’.
1pm: Jeremy Corbyn addressed activists in central London after speaking at the Unison conference in Brighton this morning
The former London Mayor took to the skies in a helicopter to continue the push for Brexit
Mr Johnson has appealed for voters to make the EU referendum Britain’s ‘Independence Day’
‘They will have to account for what they have said and done but that will be of little consolation for we will be out, out for good, diminished as an influence on the world.
‘A truly Great Britain shrunk down to a little England perhaps without Scotland, perhaps with a grumpy Wales, and certainly with a Northern Ireland divided from the south by the border the controls that would then be the edge of the European Union.’
Dismissing accusations that the Remain campaign had been ‘project fear’, he insisted that Mr Cameron had a ‘duty’ to to warn the nation of the dangers of quitting.