EU referendum: Vote to Leave puts Britain on uncertain course

Britain hasvoted to leave the European Union after a bitterly divisive referendum campaign, toppling the David Cameron government, sending global markets plunging Friday and shattering the stability of a project in continental unity designed half a century ago to prevent another world war.

The decision raises the likelihood of years of negotiations over trade, business and political links with what will become a 27-nation bloc. In essence, the vote marks the start rather than the end of a process that could take decades to unwind.

• Full CBCNews.ca coverage on the referendum
• 'Best of three?' Britishcelebsdisappointed, resigned inBrexitvote reaction
• SeeCBC'sliveblogof theBrexitvote
• Britain's out of EU: Here's what happens next
• Trudeau says Canada 'well positioned' to weather Brexit storm

Markets plunged as results defied bookmakers' odds to show a 52-48 percentvictory for the campaign to leave a bloc thatBritain joined morethan 40 years ago.

The results have also raised the possibility of one or morebreakups within the U.K. as nationalist politicians in Scotland and Northern Ireland where voters favoured remaining within the EU say a Brexit warrants a vote onindependence for their constituents.

An emotional Cameron, who led the Remaincampaign todefeat, losing the gamble he took when he promised thereferendum in 2013, said he would leave office by October.

"The British people have made the very clear decision totake a different path and as such I think the country requiresfresh leadership to take it in this direction," he said in atelevised address outside his residence.

"I do not think it would be right for me to be the captainthat steers our country to its next destination," he added, choking back tears before walking back through 10 DowningStreet's black door with his arm around his wife Samantha.

Leaders on opposite sides of Brexit react to vote

8 years ago

Duration 1:15

Cameron resigns, Farage pleased, Boris Johnson thanks British people

Economists predict recession

Quitting the EU could cost Britain access to the EU's tradebarrier-free single market and means it must seek new tradeaccords with countries around the world. A poll of economists byReuters predicted Britain was likelier than not to fall intorecession within a year.

The EU for its part will be economically and politicallydamaged, facing the departure of a member with its biggestfinancial centre, a UNSecurity Council veto, a powerful armyand nuclear weapons.

• Loonietanks, British pound infreefallafterBrexitvote

The world's biggest trading bloc which rose out of theashes of two world wars, fascist and communist totalitarianismto unite a continent of prosperous democracies will losearound a sixth of its economic output.

"It's an explosive shock. At stake is the break up pure andsimple of the union," French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said."Now is the time to invent another Europe."

The vote had aturnoutof 72 per cent of the more than 46 million registered voters.

'A noble idea'

Former London mayor Boris Johnson, aleading voice in the Leave campaign and a potential successor to Cameron, on Friday lauded the outgoing PM as a "brave and principled man."

Johnson, wholeft his home to jeers from a crowd in the mainlypro-EU capital,said Britain will continueto be a "great European power."

"We cannot turn our backs on Europe. We are part of Europe," Johnson said.

• Scotland 'highly likely' to hold 2nd independence vote afterBrexit

"But there is simply no need in the21stcentury to be partof a federal system of government based in Brussels It was a noble idea for its time. It is no longer right for this country."

The result emboldened euro-skeptics in other member states,with French National Front leader Marine Le Pen and Dutchfar-right leader Geert Wilders demanding their countries alsohold referendums. Le Pen changed her Twitter profile picture toa Union Jack and declared "Victory for freedom!"

The vote will trigger at least two years of divorceproceedings with the EU, the first exit by any member state.Cameron, in office since 2010, said it would be up to hissuccessor to formally start the exit process

Euphoria foreuroskeptics

Lawmakers from the opposition Labour Party also launched ano-confidence motion to topple their leader, leftist JeremyCorbyn, accused by opponents in the party of campaigning onlytepidly for its Remain stance.

There was euphoria among Britain's euroskeptic forces,claiming a victory over the political establishment, bigbusiness and foreign leaders including U.S. President BarackObama who had urged Britain to stay in.

"Let June 23 go down in our history as our independenceday," said Nigel Farage, leader of the euroskeptic U.K. Independence Party, describing the EU as "doomed" and "dying."

• EU leaders call for speedyBrexit, French far right touts 'Frexit'

On the continent, politicians reacted with dismay.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who invited the French andItalian leaders to Berlin to discuss future steps, called it awatershed for European unification. Her foreign minister calledit a sad day for Britain and Europe

The shock hits a European bloc already reeling from a eurozone debt crisis, unprecedented mass migration and confrontationwith Russia over Ukraine. Anti-immigrant and anti-EU partieshave been surging across the continent, loosening the grip ofthe establishment that has governed Europe for generations.

Political leaders react to Brexit

8 years ago

Duration 1:24

Comments from EU, Germany, France and Donald Trump

Accusations of scare-mongering

Britain has always been ambivalent about its relations withthe rest of post-war Europe. A firm supporter of free trade,tearing down internal economic barriers and expanding the EU totake in ex-communist eastern states, it opted out of joining theeuro single currency or the Schengen border-free zone.

Cameron's ruling Conservatives in particular have harboureda vocal anti-EU wing for generations, and it was partly tosilence such figures that he called the referendum.

Back then it looked like a sure thing. But the 11th hourdecision of Johnson Cameron's schoolmate from the same eliteprivate boarding school to come down on the side of Leave gavethe exit campaign a credible voice.

The four-month campaign was among the most divisive everwaged in Britain, with accusations of lying and scare-mongeringon both sides and rows over immigration which critics said attimes unleashed overt racism.

At the darkest hour, a pro-EU member of parliament wasstabbed and shot to death in the street. The suspect later tolda court his name was "Death to traitors, freedom for Britain."

The result triggers a new series of negotiations that is expected to last two years or more as Britain and the EU search for a way to separate economies that have become intertwined since the U.K. joined the bloc on Jan. 1, 1973. Until those talks are completed, Britain will remain a member of the EU.

Exiting the EU involves taking the unprecedented step of invoking Article 50 of theEU'sgoverning treaty. While Greenland left an earlier, more limited version of the bloc in 1985, no country has ever invoked Article 50, so there is no road map for how the process will work.

"It will usher in a lengthy and possibly protracted period of acute economic uncertainty about the U.K.'s trading arrangements," said DanielVernazza, the U.K. economist atUniCredit.

The European Union is the world's biggest economy and the U.K.'s most important trading partner, accounting for 45 per cent of exports and 53 per cent of imports.

• CBC IN BRUSSELS |Leave victory should send chill downEU'scollective spine