Britain's vote a global jolt, takes leader

Stunned Cameron to resign

Supporters of the Stronger In campaign react Friday at London’s Royal Festival Hall after hearing results from the European Union referendum. Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, said there is “no way of predicting all the political consequences of this event, especially for the U.K.”
Supporters of the Stronger In campaign react Friday at London’s Royal Festival Hall after hearing results from the European Union referendum. Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, said there is “no way of predicting all the political consequences of this event, especially for the U.K.”

LONDON -- The people of the United Kingdom woke up to a different country after its unprecedented decision to leave the European Union sent shock waves through the country and around the world Friday.


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A journalist shows a copy of the London Evening Standard during a television broadcast Friday outside the Bank of England in London.

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Nigel Farage, the leader of the U.K. Independence Party, is still celebrating as he leaves a London party Friday held by supporters of the campaign for Great Britain to leave the EU.

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Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron, with his wife, Samantha, by his side, said Friday outside No. 10 Downing St. that he will resign by October. “I love this country and I feel honored to have served it,” he said.

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A map showing how the U.K. voted.

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The New York Times

A taxi driver waves a Union Jack during celebrations in central London’s Westminster area.

The win for the "Leave" camp rocked financial markets, pushed Prime Minister David Cameron to resign and sparked plans for another referendum on Scotland's independence.

Conservative former London Mayor Boris Johnson said, "The British people have spoken up for democracy in Britain and across Europe," and Nigel Farage, leader of the U.K. Independence Party, said, "The dawn is breaking on an independent United Kingdom."

In a referendum marked by notably high turnout -- 72 percent of the more than 46 million registered voters -- "Leave" won with 52 percent of the votes.

"It's a vindication of 1,000 years of British democracy," Jonathan Campbell James, 62, declared at the train station in Richmond, southwest London. "From Magna Carta all the way through to now, we've had a slow evolution of democracy, and this vote has vindicated the maturity and depth of the democracy in our country."

But for the 48 percent of British voters who wanted to remain -- and for the 2 million citizens of EU member states who live and work in the U.K., but could not vote -- there was sadness, anger and even panic.

At a London train station, commuter Olivia Sangster-Bullers called the result "absolutely disgusting."

"Good luck to all of us, I say, especially those trying to build a future with our children," she said.

While the decision is nonbinding -- only Parliament can invoke Article 50 of the bloc's Lisbon Treaty, which triggers a formal departure from the European Union -- the vote opens a yearslong process to renegotiate trade, business and political links between the U.K. and what will become a 27-nation bloc.

Until those talks are completed, the U.K. will remain a member of the EU, which it joined in 1973.

Britain would be the first major country to leave the EU, which was created after World War II as European leaders sought to build links and avert future hostility. With no precedent, the impact on the single market of 500 million people -- the world's largest economy -- is unclear.

Stock markets plummeted around the world. Markets calmed and later recovered some of their losses after Bank of England Gov. Mark Carney promised to take "all the necessary steps to prepare for today's events."

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 610 points, or 3.4 percent, its biggest fall since August.

The euro fell against the dollar, and the pound dropped to its lowest level since 1985, falling more than 10 percent from about $1.50 to $1.35 before a slight recovery, on concerns that severing ties with the single market will hurt the U.K. economy and undermine London's position as a global financial center.

Cameron, who had led the campaign to keep the U.K. in the EU, said he would resign by October and left it to his successor to decide when to invoke Article 50.

"I will do everything I can as prime minister to steady the ship over the coming weeks and months," Cameron said outside No. 10 Downing St. "But I do not think it would be right for me to try to be the captain that steers the country to its next destination."

He also said he had spoken to Queen Elizabeth II "to advise her of the steps that I am taking."

"I held nothing back," Cameron said. His voice breaking, he said, "I love this country and I feel honored to have served it."

His resignation announcement sparks a Conservative leadership battle in which Johnson is a leading contender.

In a brief statement after Cameron announced his resignation, Johnson praised the prime minister as "an extraordinary politician" and said he was sad to see him go.

Johnson refused to answer questions about his own future but praised the result. "We can find our voice in the world again, a voice that is commensurate with the fifth-biggest economy on Earth," he said.

Former Business Secretary Vince Cable said Cameron had made a monumental political misjudgment that would now haunt him.

"There was a chronic failure to understand what can happen when you just throw the cards in the air," Cable said. "Unpredictable things happen. People find an outlet for their grievances, whether it's got anything to do with Europe or not."

The result also triggered turmoil in the left-of-center opposition Labor Party, whose traditional working-class supporters defied the party's call to vote "remain" in large numbers. Leader Jeremy Corbyn, a socialist who lent lukewarm support to the pro-EU cause, faces an incipient challenge to his leadership.

Sorrow, anger

Leaders from across the EU and the world voiced regret inflected with anger at the British decision.

Germany called top diplomats from the EU's six founding nations to a meeting today, and the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk, said the bloc would meet without the U.K. at a meeting next week to assess its future. Tusk vowed not to let the vote derail the European project.

"What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger," he said, but noted that there was "no way of predicting all the political consequences of this event, especially for the U.K."

Manuel Valls, the French prime minister, said, "At stake is the breakup, pure and simple, of the union," and added, "Now is the time to invent another Europe."

Germany urged calm. "Today marks a turning point for Europe," said Chancellor Angela Merkel. "It is a turning point for the European unification process."

President Barack Obama said he talked to Cameron and believes the British voters' decision speaks "to the ongoing changes and challenges that are raised by globalization."

Obama said he came away from his call with Cameron "confident" that Britain is "committed to an orderly transition."

In a separate call with Merkel, both "said they regretted the decision but respected the will of the British people," the White House said.

"While the U.K.'s relationship with the EU will change, one thing that will not change is the special relationship that exists between our two nations," Obama said Friday in remarks at Stanford University. "That will endure."

U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry also spoke to their British counterparts Friday.

Another Scotland vote seen

The divisions exposed by the referendum threaten to unstitch the complex fabric of the U.K., which comprises England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

In Scotland, the only country where all of its 32 council areas voted to remain in the EU, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said a new referendum on independence from the United Kingdom is now "highly likely."

Scotland voted in 2014 to remain a part of the U.K., but that decision was seen by many as conditional on the U.K. remaining in the EU.

"I am proud of Scotland and how we voted yesterday," Sturgeon said. "We proved that we are a modern, outward-looking and inclusive country, and we said clearly that we do not want to leave the European Union."

Sturgeon cited her party's election manifesto, which calls for another ballot if there is a "significant and material change in circumstances" from the 2014 vote, such as Scotland's being taken out of the European Union against its will.

"It is a significant and material change," Sturgeon said, speaking to reporters just hours after the referendum results were officially announced. "It's therefore a statement of the obvious that the option of a second referendum must be on the table, and it is on the table."

A referendum should be held within the two-year time frame of the U.K.'s exit from the EU, she added.

The Scottish Cabinet will meet today to discuss further measures, she said, and the government plans to hold urgent talks with the European Commission and members of the EU to make clear Scotland wants to remain in the bloc.

In sharp contrast to England and Wales, Scotland voted for Britain to remain in the bloc by 62 percent to 38 percent.

Across Scotland, people were stunned by the results of the referendum, but there were mixed reactions over the possibility of a second bid for independence.

J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, posted on Twitter that Scotland would now seek independence and that Cameron's legacy would have been that of "breaking up two unions." She added, "Neither needed to happen."

David Grey, 58, who voted for Scotland to remain in the United Kingdom in 2014 and favors membership in the EU because of economic security, said he would "vote for independence tomorrow if I could." England and Scotland "have now diverged significantly," he said.

Steven Murchie, 29, who works in a whiskey shop, said he thought differently. He voted for the U.K. to leave and said he was not concerned with the economic downturn that Britain potentially faces.

"Britain has the financial stability that will allow it to function outside the EU," he said. "Britain will be fine without the EU, and Scotland, too."

The EU exit also would complicate the status of Northern Ireland, which shares a border with the Republic of Ireland, an EU member. Northern Ireland voted overwhelmingly to stay, but had areas that backed an exit.

Sinn Fein, the Irish nationalist party dedicated to ending British jurisdiction over Northern Ireland, immediately announced that the "Leave" results justified a united Ireland after 95 years of partition.

"English votes have overturned the democratic will of Northern Ireland," Declan Kearney, Sinn Fein's national chairman, said in a statement Friday morning. "This British government has forfeited any mandate to represent the economic or political interests of people in Northern Ireland."

In Wales, where 52 percent of voters backed "Leave," First Minister Carwyn Jones was quick to express displeasure with the vote.

In a statement, Jones said the referendum was grounds for an entire reworking of the political relationships among the U.K.'s devolved capitals, putting the country onto "entirely different footing."

Sharp divisions

The referendum result revealed the United Kingdom to be a sharply divided nation: Strong pro-EU votes in London and Scotland were countered by sentiment for an exit across the rest of England, from southern seaside towns to rust-belt former industrial powerhouses in the north.

For many who voted "Leave," the act was a rebellion against the political, economic and social establishment and the derided "experts" -- including business leaders, artists, scientists and soldiers -- who had written open letters warning of the consequences of an exit from the bloc.

"Leave" voters were persuaded by the argument that leaving the EU meant taking back control of immigration -- by abandoning the bloc's principle of free movement of citizens of member states -- and reclaiming billions that the U.K. pays to Brussels each year.

"Remain" supporters said that belief ignored the benefits for the U.K. from the EU, and EU workers.

Nothing matched the shock of many in the capital, London, where more than 10 percent of the population is from the EU, and which voted by a large margin to remain in the EU.

Christine Ullmann, a German who worked on the campaign urging other Europeans to "Hug a Brit," expressed a widespread sense of sadness and loss.

"What about Brits who believe in the goodness of their society who find themselves in a society where they can't travel and work freely in Europe?" she said. "I feel really sad for them. They've lost more."

London Mayor Sadiq Khan reassured the 1 million Europeans in the capital that they were "very welcome here."

"We all have a responsibility to now seek to heal the divisions that have emerged throughout this campaign -- and to focus on what unites us, rather than that which divides us," he said.

Information for this article was contributed by Jill Lawless, Danica Kirka, Raphael Satter, Frank Jordans and Shawn Pogatchnik of The Associated Press; by Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura and Steven Erlanger of The New York Times; and by James McAuley of The Washington Post.

A Section on 06/25/2016

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