Britan votes to exit EU in historic referendum

In a historic development, the UK has voted to leave the European Union after 43 years as the 'Brexit' camp on Friday took a seemingly unassailable lead over the 'Remain' camp in a down-to-wire referendum with far reaching implications for the world. 52 per cent of the Britons in Thursday's vote favoured leaving the 28-member EU, while 48 per cent supported staying in the bloc. The final national

result is to be officially declared by the UK Electoral Commission's chief counting officer.  London and Scotland voted strongly to stay in the EU but the remain vote has been undermined by poor results in the north of England. Voters in Wales and the English shires have backed Brexit in large numbers.

The vote - which saw an extremely high turnout of around 72 per cent with over 30 million people voting- reverses the public verdict back in 1975, when the UK voted to remain a member of then European Economic Community, which later became the EU.

The UK will be the first country to leave the bloc. The argument has swiftly moved to the future and what happens next after the Brexit vote. While the result of a referendum is not legally binding on the UK government, Cameron has repeatedly promised that the will of the people will be accepted. In the immediate aftermath, Britain will remain a member of the EU and nothing will change instantly. 

As expected the, the result sent ripples across the world as the pound fell to its lowest level against the dollar since 1985. 

Japan's benchmark Nikkei was down 7.7 per cent to 14,982.48 points. In South Korea, the Kospi index was 3.9 per cent lower at 1,909.18. 

In China, the mainland Shanghai Composite was down 1.2 per cent to 2,857.58 while Hong Kong's Hang Seng is down sharply 4.7 per cent to 19,894.12 points.