The results of the UK referendum on the country’s membership of the EU have come in, Friday morning, backing the Brexit campaign. Already, in the few hours since the result was officially published at 0600 BST, the country has been in frenzy, political officials report.

 The Leave campaign was showing signs of defeat late last night, with the leader of the movement and UKIP leader, Nigel Farage saying that the ‘Remainers’ had “tipped the vote”. However the final result of 51.9 percent of the population voting Leave, puts the country in favour of leaving the European Union.

 The pound sterling, after briefly rising as the vote to Remain seemed to be gaining ground in the early hours of the morning, has dramatically plummeted in value following the referendum result. At one stage it hit  $1.3305 – a fall of more than 10 percent, marking a low that has not been seen since 1985.

 The banks have been hit especially hard, but BBC reports that the Bank of England has confirmed that it is “monitoring developments closely in order to take all necessary steps to support monetary stability.” The slump of the FTSE 100 index which fell more than 500 points in the opening minutes of trade has been called “unprecedented” and marks its “biggest one-day fall since the collapse of Lehman Brothers” in October 2008.

 Britain’s vote to leave is having a knock-on effect to the economies of other European countries and there are fears that it will spark the dissolution of the EU, indeed Le Pen, the leader of France’s Front National party, has already commented that “now it is our [France’s] turn.”

 In Britain there is much discontent: 64 percent of 18-24 year-olds voted remain who arguably have the longest period of time to live with such a decision. Similarly, although the final outcome of the vote swung in favour of the Leave campaign, Scotland and Northern Ireland voters both had a majority voting to remain. This again raises concerns that this latest decision to abandon the EU will trigger the dissolution of the United Kingdom.

 There have also been rumours of London seeking to gain independence, given the majority of MPs being in favour of remaining in the Union, around 450 of the total 650 sitting in the House of Commons. David Cameron, the Prime Minister, has declared his resignation October this year, stating that “a new leader will have to carry out the negotiations with the Brussels” surrounding the deals for Britain.

 Although there is a two-year window in which the breakaway will take place, there is much uncertainty and a huge amount of discontent following Thursday’s referendum, leaving a lot left to be seen.

dt