UK Goes To Polls In European Union Referendum, Brexit or Remain?

Millions of voters are casting their vote in a historic poll on whether the UK should remain in the EU or leave.

British Prime Minister David Cameron called the vote under pressure from an increasingly powerful anti-EU party. (Photo Courtesy: RUPTLY TV screen grab)

Britons were voting on Thursday to decide the future of their country and Europe in a referendum on European Union membership. It is a debate that has divided the nation and opinion polls taken before the vote indicated the outcome is far too close to forecast.

The process and its outcome is being nervously watched by financial markets and politicians across the world.

British Prime Minister David Cameron called the vote under pressure from his ruling Conservative Party and an increasingly powerful anti-EU party, hoping to put to rest decades of debate over Britain’s place in Europe and its ties with Brussels.

Most polls put the “Leave” and “Remain” camps neck-and-neck at the end of a campaign that was dominated by immigration and the economy, and shaken by the murder of a pro-EU MP, though late on Wednesday two showed a swing to “Remain”. 

The “Leave” campaign says Britain’s economy would benefit from a Brexit, or British exit from the EU. Cameron says it would cause financial chaos.