The British public has voted to leave the European Union by 51.9 to 48.1 percent.

The results were too close to call for much of the night, but the Leave campaign started to pull away as the results were announced in the early hours of Friday morning.

England and Wales voted to Leave the EU, while Scotland and Northern Ireland voted to remain. The variation between the regions has resulted in a renewed calls for referendums on independence in Scotland and Northern Ireland, with voters appalled at the idea of being dragged out of Europe.

London also voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU, with its financial services industry going to be one of the hardest hit by the result.

As it became clear the result was in favour of leaving the EU, the value of the pound went into freefall. At one stage, sterling hit $1.3236, a fall of more than 10% and a low not seen since 1985. It has since seen a small recovery, but remains down nearly 8% on the day.

The markets reacted badly to the uncertainty of the UK outside the EU, with the FTSE 250 falling by around eight percent by early afternoon, with billions wiped off UK GDP.

In total, 270 counting areas voted to leave the EU, while 129 voted to remain, although it is only the overall national numbers that affected the resulted.

Following the announcement of the final result, David Cameron announced that he would resign as Prime Minister, saying that he is not the right person to lead the UK in its Article 50 negotiations to leave Europe.

It is unclear whether the new Prime Minister will be selected by the 150,000 Conservative Party members, or the party will call a general election in order to try and gain a mandate.