Britain has voted to leave the European Union to take greater control of its economy and its borders, shattering the stability of the continental unity forged after World War II.
The decision launches what will be years of negotiations over trade, business and political links with the EU, which will shrink to a 27-nation bloc.
Official results released early Friday show the “leave” side prevailed 52 percent to 48 percent in Thursday’s vote, which had a turnout of 72 percent.
As Britons voted to leave the EU, Prime Minister David Cameron announced that he will resign.
Cameron promised to try to “steady the ship” over the next months but said a new leader should be installed by early October.
“I do not think it would be right for me to try to be the captain that steers our country to its next destination,” the British leader said outside his official Downing Street residence in London.
The UK is the first major country to decide to leave the bloc, which evolved from the ashes of the war as the region’s leaders sought to build links and avert future hostility.
Read our latest wrap on #Brexit here.
If you want to know how the results day panned out, check our minute by minute posts below.
As it happened.
4:13pm
We must not forget why the EU exists. Only together will the EU be able to assert its interests in the world, says Merkel
4:12pm
Period of calm is now essential: Merkel
4:10pm
German Chancellor Angela Merkel makes a statement
3:49pm
EU leaders vow ‘no renegotiation’ on different terms to keep Britain in bloc.
3:44pm
We cannot turn our backs on Europe. UK will continue to be a European power: Johnson
EU was ‘noble idea’ but no longer right for Britain: Johnson
3:42pm
Electorate have searched in their hearts and answered honestly, says Boris Johnson
3:40pm
Boris Johnson addresses the media, says very sad that David Cameron is going.
3:25pm
Poland’s foreign minister says that if the model of a political form of the European Union keeps being pushed, the common European project may end in “catastrophe.”
3:15pm
The European Central Bank says it is “closely monitoring financial markets” in the wake of the British vote to leave the European Union.
3:10pm
NATO’s chief says the British vote to leave the European Union shouldn’t affect its status as a reliable and key member of the US-led military alliance.
2:45am
Germany’s vice chancellor says the Brexit vote is a “chance for a new beginning” but that Europe must not return to business as usual.
2:40pm
Spain’s acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy says his country has received Britain’s decision to leave the European Union with sadness, adding that “it ought to make all member nations rethink.”
2:25pm
Boos – and a few cheers – greeted former London Mayor Boris Johnson as he left his London home the morning after a historic vote to leave the European Union.
Johnson is one of the primary candidates to become prime minister after being the most prominent figure in the campaign to have the UK leave the single market.
2:10pm
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday that Britain’s place in the US-led alliance “will remain unchanged” despite Britons decision to leave the European Union.
1:45pm
Poland’s foreign minister says Britain’s deciding to leave the European Union is “bad news” for Europe and for the many Poles – estimated at about 850,000 – who now live in Britain.
He says “I can only give a sigh: so it’s done. This is bad news for Europe, bad news for Poland. … The status of Poles living there will not change for now, but we don’t really know how much Britain’s status will be changed.”
1:40pm
Martin Schulz says the EU assembly will hold an emergency session next week following the U.K.’s decision to leave the bloc.
1:38pm
The Hang Seng Index dives 2.92 percent, or 609.21 points, to close at 20,259.13.
1:20pm
European Parliament President Martin Schulz says Britain’s exit from the EU must be done quickly.
1:18pm
Will not hesitate to take any measures required, says Bank of England governor Mark Carney
1:15pm
Bank of England governor speaks after Brexit vote
12:53pm
“I love this country and I feel honoured to have served it and I will do everything I can in future to help this great country succeed.”
Now the decision has been made to leave, we should find the best way. Will step down by October, says Cameron
12:52pm
Think the country requires fresh leadership. Should not be the captain of this ship: Cameron
12:51pm
I am very proud and honoured to be the PM of this country: Cameron
Want to reassure markets and investors that Britain’s economy is strong
12:50pm
Will of the people of Britain must be respected, says Cameron.
12:49m
British PM David Cameron is addressing the media.
12:40pm
London stock market plunges 7.5% at opening, Paris stock market drops 8% & German stocks plunge 9.94%
12:25pm
European Union president Donald Tusk says the bloc was determined to stay unified after Britain voted to leave and warned against “hysterical” reactions.
“Today on behalf of the 27 leaders, I can say that we are determined to keep our unity as 27,” Tusk said.
12:20pm
French President Francois Hollande has convened an emergency government meeting in the wake of the British vote to leave the European Union.
12:10pm
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn says British Prime Minister David Cameron must move urgently to stabilize the pound.
12:05pm
Nigel Farage says Britain should now have a “Brexit government” after it voted to leave the European Union. “We now need a Brexit government,” he told reporters outside parliament. “We’ve left behind a failing political union.”
11:55am
All votes are in. ‘Leave’ campaign wins by 12,69,501 votes.
11:40am:David Cameron to remain British PM after Brexit vote, says UK foreign minister.
11:30:
Bank of England says will take ‘all necessary steps’ after Brexit vote
11:20am
Ratings agency Standard and Poor’s said Britain’s top-notch “AAA” credit rating is no longer tenable after voters opted to leave the European Union, the Financial Times reported.
11:10am
European Parliament President Martin Schulz expects negotiations over Britain’s departure from the European Union to begin quickly. “The United Kingdom has decided to go its own way. I think the economic data show this morning that it will be a very difficult way,” Schulz told German television station ZDF. “I expect that the negotiations on the exit will now begin quickly,” said Schulz.
10:42am
With 374 out of 382 regional results declared, there are 16.8 million votes for “Leave” and 15.7 million for “Remain”, making it mathematically impossible for “Remain” to win.
10:31am
‘Leave’ needs 37,665 more votes to win.
10:30am
Now, Dutch anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders calls for the Netherlands to hold a referendum on whether to leave in the EU. “The Dutch people deserve a referendum as well. The Party for Freedom consequently demands a referendum on NExit, a Dutch EU exit,” Wilders said in a statement.
10:25am
‘Leave’ needs 249,404 votes to win; 12 results left to declare
10:23am
Sensex crashes over 1,000 points, Nifty plunges 318 points.
Read| Britain is no longer Great, and Brexit hides opportunities for India
10:20am
Remain on 48 pct, Leave on 52 pct after 369 of 382 results declared
10:15am
S&P 500 and Nasdaq E-mini futures slump 5 percent. Futures on the Dow Jones industrial average drop 3.8 percent.
10:10m
China’s yuan slumps to over 5-year low. The offshore yuan was trading 0.36 percent softer than the onshore spot at 6.6299 per dollar.
10:05am
Former Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb calls Britain’s vote to leave the European Union a “bad nightmare”.
German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel on Friday describes it as “a bad day for Europe”.
9:55am
Scotland sees its future as “part of the EU”, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says.
9:49am
Remain on 48 pct, Leave on 52 pct after 350 of 382 results declared
9:39am
With 329 of 382 counting centers reporting results, the “leave” side is ahead by over 900,000 votes.
9:35am
Reserve Bnak of India (RBI) intervenes in forex market with liquidity support
9:30am
Trading was briefly halted for Japan’s Nikkei futures on Friday as global equity markets plunged on fears that Britain would leave the European Union. Trading will resume at 0358 GMT following a 10-minute break. The Nikkei futures were down 8.1 percent.
9:25am
Counting from 304 of 382 areas showed a 51.5/48.5 split for leaving.
9:20am
Sensex opens 940 points down as leads show ‘Leave’ camp ahead in ‘Brexit’ referendum vote; Nifty tanks 281.50 points
9:15 am
Oil falls more than 5.0 percent as Brexit looms
9:13am
BBC forecasts that Britain has voted to leave the EU
8:55am
Remain on 48.46 pct, leave on 51.54 pct after results declared for 270 of 382 counting areas.
8:40am
British pound tumbles to a 31-year low as EU vote results show the ‘leave’ side in lead by over 400,000 votes after 244 of 382 counting centers report results.
8:35am
200 of 382 results declared, Brexit camp leads. The number of votes cast stood at 7.8 million for “Leave”, 51.69 percent, compared to 7.3 million for “Remain”, or 48.31 percent.
8:30am
As ‘Leave’ leads, Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage tweets- “I now dare to dream that the dawn is coming up on an independent United Kingdom”
8:25am
Machester votes to Remain
8:10am
Remain on 48.45 pct, Leave on 51.55 pct after 189 of 382 voting areas results reported
8:05am
Sterling reverses sharp early gains , yen stages a rebound . Meanwhile, gold rises more than 1 percent and oil futures drop below $50 a barrel.
7:55am
Remain on 48.6 pct, Leave on 51.4 pct after 158 of 382 counting areas results
7:37am
Remain on 49.82 pct, Leave on 50.18 pct after 109 of 382 counting areas results
7:36am
Westminster Votes To Stay In The EU With 69% Vote
7:27am
Remain on 50.5 pct, leave on 49.6 pct after 90 of 382 counting areas
7:24am
Liverpool votes to stay in the EU
7:15am
Hong Kong stocks swung wildly at their opening. The Hang Seng Index plunged around two percent at one point, but minutes later had clawed back lost ground to sit at 20,862.59, down 0.22 percent, or 45.06 points.
7:06am
Official results have Remain (50.8%) ahead of Leave (49.2%), Sterling rising in response
7:00am
The first big London borough to declare, Lambeth, votes to #Remain by 79% to 21%
6:58am
The “leave” side has become the betting favorite for the first time in the British referendum campaign .
The Betfair market predicts a 51 percent chance of Britain leaving the EU, after stronger-than-expected results for the out campaign in several areas of England and Wales.
6:45am
Euro/Yen falls to as low as 115.465, lowest level since January 2013 as ‘Leave’ leads.
Tokyo’s Nikkei drops nearly 3%. The Nikkei 225 slumped 2.96 percent, or 480.98 points, to 15,757.37.
6:25am
The results from the British referendum on European Union membership are still far too incomplete to draw any solid conclusions.
Still, a series of better-than-expected results for the “leave” camp appears to have convinced some people that the drive to pull Britain out of Europe has a real chance of winning.
Google Trends, an arm of the search engine giant, says there has been a 250 percent spike in searches for the phrase “what happens if we leave the EU” in the past hour.
6:22am
Remain on 49.3%, leave on 50.7%, after 19 counting areas out of 382 declared
5:20am
The British pound is getting whipsawed by volatile trading as initial results from the vote on whether the U.K. should remain in the European Union showed the race is too close to call.
The currency surged shortly after the polls closed Thursday, climbing to a 2016 peak of $1.50 after a leading proponent of the “leave” vote indicated he thought his side was heading for a loss. But the pound sold off – falling 4 cents in 5 minutes – after counts from cities including Newcastle and Sunderland showed the result was far from certain.
The pound was trading at about $1.453.
5.00am:
– Scottish Conservative leader Davidson says turnout in Scotland of around or above 70%.
– Sunderland voted more strongly than expected to leave the European Union as around 61.3% of voters backed leaving the bloc, above the 56.5% predicted by JP Morgan in analysis published before the vote.
4.30am:
– Sterling hits a fresh 2016 high of $1.5004 from $1.4975 before polling stations across the country closed at 2100 GMT. The euro fell to a one-month low of 76.01 pence.
4.15am:
– Early trends plunge Leave camp into pessimism. While most polls show Remain camp ahead of Leave, prominent ‘Brexit’ campaigners acknowledged they looked likely to lose.
– Conservative MP David Davis blasts the dozens of Leave-supporting Conservative MPs who had put their name to the letter endorsing a continued term for PM David Cameron.
“I don’t sign grovelling letters and I don’t sign threatening letters,” Davis said, however, adding that “Cameron should stay on in either circumstance”, whether it’s a Brexit or not, in an Express report.
4.00am:
– Early reports suggest a very high turnout in Britain’s EU referendum.
– According to first official figures coming from Gibraltar, almost 84% of eligible voters turned out to cast ballots. The territory bordering Spain voted overwhelmingly in favour of Remain, as widely expected.
3.41am:
– Gauging the poll opinion pointer towards Remain camp, Conservative lawmakers urge UK Prime Minister David Cameron to stay.
– After scathing attacks over the alleged failure to curb migration problem of UK, Cameron had agreed to go out of office if the referendum weighed the Leave camp more.
“There are good ways of controlling immigration … but pulling out of the single market, wrecking our economy, that is a bad way,” Cameron had earlier told ITV’s “Lorraine” programme.
3.17am:
Most final polls and surveys including YouGov, Ipsos-Mori put ‘Remain’ ahead of ‘Leave’ as polls close.
Ispos-Mori poll shows 54% ‘Remain’, 46% ‘Leave’, says chief executive Ben Page
3.15am:
Reports that the “remain” side could be headed to victory in Britain’s referendum on European Union membership have sent the British pound surging more than 1% to $1.50.
3.10am:
British Electoral Commission chair Jenny Watson says the first stages of the vote counting process are now underway in Britain’s referendum on membership in the European Union.
A record 46.5 million people registered to vote, many of them braving torrential rain and floods to take a momentous decision after a highly charged battle over immigration, the economy and Britain’s very identity.
EU leaders have warned Britain — the world’s fifth-largest economy — that there would be no turning back from a vote to quit.
“Out is out,” European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said Wednesday, dismissing any talk of a post-vote renegotiation of Britain’s membership terms.
EU leaders will begin a two-day summit Tuesday to deal with the outcome and decide how to cope with the risk of similar referendums on the continent.
Full Coverage: Britain’s EU Referendum