Brexit wins: Nigel Farage faces public fury after claiming victory in EU vote 'without a bullet being fired'

Sebastian Mann24 June 2016
WEST END FINAL

Get our award-winning daily news email featuring exclusive stories, opinion and expert analysis

I would like to be emailed about offers, event and updates from Evening Standard. Read our privacy notice.

Nigel Farage faced a furious backlash today after saying the Leave campaign had "done it without a bullet being fired."

The Ukip leader, speaking in central London was issuing a rallying call for Brexit when he made the remark.

He said: "And we will have done it, we will have done it without having to fight, without a single bullet being fired."

He was described as "beneath contempt" and lacking "basic decency" in the wake of the murder of MP Jo Cox who died in the lead-up to the EU vote.

Hundreds of people reacted furiously to Mr Farage's remark. Others said his words had been taken out of context.

Mrr Farage earlier said: "I think that Remain might just nick it." after only a few results were in.

But as the voting took a turnaround, a buoyant Farage appeared in central London to hail "The dawn of an independent United Kingdom."

Apparently claiming victory with the vote still split closely at 48.9% to 51.1%, he said: "Let June 23 go down in our history as our independence day."

His comments came as the pound fell to a 31-year-low as Brexit edge in front in the referendum.

The Ukip leader said he was "daring to dream" of victory.

Sterling plunged on overnight markets as traders responded to growing expectations that the UK may have voted to quit the European Union after 43 years.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said the Bank of England may have to intervene to shore up the currency, which lost 3% within moments of the first result showing a strong result for Leave in Sunderland and fell as much as 6.5% against the euro.

The Remain side was undermined by poor results in many of Labour's traditional strongholds in the North, including Sheffield, where Mr Farage hailed a narrow victory for Leave as "amazing".

The Ukip leader won ecstatic applause from Leave supporters as he told them at around 4am: "I now dare to dream that the dawn is coming up on an independent United Kingdom."

This page is being updated.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT