Turnout appeared to be heading past general election levels as Britons went to the polls to decide the country’s future with the European Union, in a vote billed as the most nationally significant for decades and still deemed too close to call.
Despite severe overnight rain in London and parts of southern England, which forced a handful of polling stations to move to drier ground, much of the rest of the country enjoyed a sunny day, with polling clerks in some areas talking of turnout reaching 70%, higher than the 66% in the 2015 general election. However, voter numbers elsewhere were believed to be lower.
Scotland’s chief returning officer said she predicted overall turnout there would reach about 70-80% after a day of “steady” voting, with numbers in Northern Ireland tipped to be 70% or more. In Bristol, meanwhile, some polling clerks talked of turnout nearing 75%.
As voting ended, no pundits felt confident enough to call the race either way. The final opinion poll of the long and brutal campaign, a phone survey by Ipsos Mori – believed to be the first such survey published on a polling day – put remain at 52% and leave on 48%.
This was in keeping with the confusing poll trend throughout the referendum buildup, in which phone surveys tended to show remain slightly ahead, with their online equivalents generally calling it for leave.
There was little sign of a lessening in the bitterness and rancour of the campaign. The remain camp hit out at Matthew Elliot, the chief executive of Vote Leave, after he sent an email to supporters warning that voters in London and Scotland could tip the result to staying in the EU “despite the heartlands of the country voting to leave”, calling this a demeaning division to make.
There were also sporadic reports of voters asking to use a pen at polling stations or bringing their own pen, in the apparent fear that their pencil cross could be changed. East Northamptonshire council subsequently warned people to make sure any pen used would not smudge, as this might invalidate their vote.
Police in Chichester, West Sussex, were called to a polling station by a volunteer following reports that a woman handing out pens to voters was causing a disturbance. She was spoken to but police said there was no need for action.
In contrast, the main political players of the campaign seemed happy to avoid the spotlight. David Cameron ignored questions from the media as he arrived at a polling station at Westminster, with his wife, Samantha. Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, voting in north London, commented on the outcome: “You could either check the wind or check the bookies.”
On the leave side, Boris Johnson, about to fly back to London following his daughter’s graduation ceremony in St Andrews, Scotland, said he believed “turnout is good in areas where we need it to be”. Most vocal, as ever, was Nigel Farage. Speaking outside his Kent home, the Ukip leader said he believed the leave camp had a very strong chance. “But it’s all about turnout and those soft remainers staying at home,” he added, perhaps referring to the damp weather.
The prediction among financial and currency traders appeared to be edging towards a win for remain. The FTSE 100 share index closed at a two-month high, while at one point in the day the pound went to about $1.49 for the first time since December.
Many traders were expected to begin work in the early hours of Friday, with some banks known to have commissioned their own polls in advance.
The betting industry was still predicting a narrow remain win. Betfair put the odds of staying at 2/13 while William Hill said remain was their 2/9 favourite. William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe told the Press Association it expected to take more than £3m in bets on the referendum and for stakes to total more than £20m across the industry.
There were to be no clues from an exit poll because there was no way to make one sufficiently accurate. Exit polls at general elections are extrapolated from changes on previous results, and the UK has not had a similar referendum since the 1975 vote on EU membership.
While the picture was expected to become clear as areas declared during the night, the official result, to be announced in Manchester, was not expected until about 7am on Friday. The Scilly Isles was racing Sunderland to be the first place to declare a result. Election ballot boxes are usually taken to the mainland for counting. In this instance, the counting will be carried out on St Mary’s and, with just 1,700 eligible voters, was not expected to take long.
Some voters faced heavier than usual odds to cast their ballots, mainly in London, where the equivalent of one month’s rain fell overnight. Kingston-upon-Thames council moved two polling stations in Chessington and New Malden. Nearby Merton council tweeted a video of a waterlogged walkway outside the Sacred Heart school polling station in New Malden, advising voters to “wear your wellies”.
The weather later led to severe delays on some train lines in and around London, sparking concern on the part of some commuters that they would struggle to get home in time to vote.
Pictures posted on social media showed plenty of queues. “I took a picture of the queue at around 8.30am and it was the longest queue to a polling station I have ever seen,” said Mauro Murgia, who lives opposite a polling station in West Hampstead.
Other would-be voters were stuck elsewhere in Europe after flights were cancelled because of the latest instalment in a rolling industrial dispute by French air traffic controllers. Those kept away from the UK were told they were not able to be given an emergency proxy vote.
In Birstall, West Yorkshire, the public library outside which MP Jo Cox was fatally shot and stabbed seven days ago, served as a polling station and hosted a vigil for the murdered Labour politician at lunchtime. The nearby Batley town hall, its steps still decked in floral tributes, also provided a venue for locals to the cast their vote.
One place where people definitely could not vote was the Glastonbury festival in Somerset, which had no polling station, meaning any of the 180,000 attendees hoping to have their voice heard would have had to have arranged a postal or proxy vote in advance.
Feelings were running high at times at the festival, even among younger people, traditionally among the less likely groups to use their vote. Tom Porter, 27, from Wolverhampton, arrived at Glastonbury saying it had been the topic of conversation on the coach trip there with friends. “A lot of people we spoke to gave us a bollocking for not voting in, because we all didn’t vote,” he added.
Others had been more organised. The Fleming family, who had travelled from Chesterfield for their first Glastonbury together, were divided on the issue. Parents Tim and Jane, 51, both favoured Brexit, but their daughter Holly, 20, took the opposite view. “I voted in,” she said. “I decided that it just isn’t that bad in the EU and we’re going to be the generation where if it goes tits up, we’ll have to sort it out.”
During Thursday, there had been some last-minute attempts from overseas to nudge the result towards remaining in the EU. In a front-page love letter, Germany’s Bild newspaper promised that if Britons voted to stay, not only would the country’s nationals not hog hotel sun-loungers, they would ban froth on beer and even recognise Geoff Hurst’s controversial extra-time goal in the 1966 World Cup final.
Landmark buildings in Europe lit up in support of remain: Madrid city hall was illuminated in red, white and blue; the Michelangelo statue of David in Florence, Italy, wore a union flag toga; while the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, Poland, projected the flag on to its front.
