Skip to main content
brexit

Supporters of the Stronger In Campaign react as results of the EU referendum are announced at the Royal Festival Hall, in London, Britain.Rob Stothard/Pool/Reuters

Lisa Nandy felt optimistic as she arrived at Manchester's Town Hall shortly after polls had closed across Britain on Thursday night.

The Labour MP for Wigan had been campaigning flat out for the Remain side in the referendum on Britain's future in the European Union and she was convinced the tide had turned in Remain's favour.

"In the last few days of the campaign, we started to hear much more of the positive, patriotic case for Remain," she said confidently.

The town hall had been converted into a makeshift headquarters for election officials to announce the national referendum results and Ms. Nandy mingled with fellow Remain supporters in the building's Great Hall, sharing a smile and some backslapping beneath a giant statue of historical political heavyweight William Gladstone.

She had every reason to be hopeful. A series of polls had given Remain a narrow lead and financial markets seemed so certain Britain would stay in the EU that the pound soared 1 per cent on Thursday and the London Stock Exchange closed at a two-month high.

Even after the polls closed at 10 p.m., a YouGov survey put Remain ahead by four percentage points. [All times here are British, not Canadian.]

Then midnight struck. And the results began to pour in.

First came Newcastle, considered a safe bet for Remain. But the win was just 1,800 votes, far too close for comfort. Minutes later, Sunderland reported. This was supposed to be a Vote Leave victory but the margin – more than 30,000 votes – was stunning. Within seconds, the pound went into free fall, losing 10 cents against the U.S. dollar in half an hour.

All of a sudden, a Remain win didn't look so sure.

For the next couple of hours, the numbers went back and forth as results from the 382 counting areas came in. Leave took the lead when smaller towns reported only to be overtaken by Remain when results from a larger city came in. Scotland voted solidly for Remain, but the turnout was lower than in England, which went for Vote Leave. So did Wales, surprising many who felt that region was among the biggest beneficiaries of the EU and sure to vote Remain. The pound gyrated with every result and Asian markets were opening down.

By 2:30 a.m., Leave campaigners were starting to believe they might just win.

Paul Nuttall, the deputy leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party which had spent decades fighting to get Britain out of the EU, could barely contain his excitement as he watched the number roll across a bank of television screens.

"We know that our voters are coming out," he said with a smile. But he still couldn't bring himself to predict victory, worried that results from London would turn the tables on everything with a resounding Remain win. "We expect London to vote to Remain. Let's just see. This is going to be a very, very tight referendum. It's going to be a bit of a rollercoaster, up and down for everyone."

His fellow Vote Leave campaigner Steven Woolfe, a Member of the European Parliament for UKIP, was more brash, explaining that Leave was winning because the British public was tired of being told what to do by people like Bank of England Governor Mark Carney who had raised the ire of Vote Leave campaigners by issuing several dire warnings about what would happen if the country left the EU.

"Very clearly people have not been fooled by the scare mongering," Mr. Woolfe said briskly.

By 3 a.m., London wasn't delivering the results expected by the Remain side. Most boroughs were solidly Remain, but enough were turning to Vote Leave to dent the city's impact. At 3:30 a.m., a long list of other regions reported, all going Vote Leave.

As the hours went by, more Remain strongholds cracked, Birmingham went Vote Leave along other key parts of the Midlands. At 4:15 a.m., the pound fell to its lowest level since 1985, an 18-cent fall from where it had traded Thursday morning. Vote Leave had what looked like an insurmountable lead of nearly 1 million votes.

Less than 30 minutes later, BBC and other broadcasters declared victory for Vote Leave. The result had been steady at 51 per cent for Vote Leave, 49 per cent for Remain.

As dawn broke, Labour MP Kate Green, who campaigned for Remain, slouched against a wall outside the Great Hall. She looked tired, despondent and uncertain.

"I think people expressed in the ballot box their concerns both about the pain the pressures they are feeling in their personal lives and obviously attributing that pain at least in part to being in the European Union," she said searching for an answer to what had just happened. "There was also, I'm quite sure, an element of feeling that the political class hadn't understood their concerns and this was a chance for them to have their own say."

Just before 6 a.m. Ms. Nandy stood near a stage where Gisela Stuart, a fellow Labour MP, was about to make a victory speech for Vote Leave.

She put on a brave face, smiled and said the result had been "disappointing".

"We always knew it was going to be a very tight result," she said. "We asked the people. We've got an answer. Britain is leaving the European Union. Now we've got to accept that result. We've got to try to bring the two sides of the country that voted differently together, heal those divisions and try to negotiate the future."

When asked how she took the result personally, Ms Nandy hesitated and said: "I would be lying if I said that I wasn't anxious about the future. But our job now is to remain calm and to think through what the next steps are."

At 7:20 a.m., Chief Counting Officer Jenny Watson took over the stage and gave the final results: 16,141,241 votes for Remain, 17,410,742 votes for Leave.

Then she paused and declared: "This means that the UK has voted to leave the European Union."

A group of Vote Leave supporters let out a cheer, many hugged each other and a few applauded wildly.

Ms. Nandy didn't hear the applause. By then, she had left.

Follow related authors and topics

Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following.

Interact with The Globe