LONDON
Millions of Britons braved rains to cast their vote in the knife-edge referendum to decide whether the country will stay in or leave the 28-nation bloc, even as the latest survey gave the Remain camp its first solid lead in the bitterly-contested poll. The results are expected on Friday.
Brisk voting was reported and members of the public posted photographs of busy polling stations across the country.
Both sides of the campaign have appealed to a record number of registered voters -- more than 46 million -- including 1.2 million British Indians, for a big turnout as Prime Minister David Cameron made his final appeal to “get out there and vote Remain” and reject the “untruths” of the camp in favour of ''Brexit'' or Britain''s exit from the European Union (EU).
The Prime Minister voted with wife Samantha at a polling booth in Westminster, just yards from his Downing Street office from where he will keep a keen eye on the results.
“It is a fact that our economy will be weaker if we leave and stronger if we stay,” Cameron told supporters in Birmingham yesterday as he travelled up and down the country to make a final push for votes.
As part of his closing speech, he invoked Britain's popular war-time Prime Minister Winston Churchill, saying, “The greatest privilege of my life is to stand in my office two yards away from where Winston Churchill made that decision to fight on against Hitler in 1940. He didn't want to be alone, he wanted to be with the Poles and the French and the others fighting for European freedom and democracy.” On the opposing side, former London mayor Boris Johnson, heading the final drive for the Vote Leave campaign, insisted his side was “on the verge of victory” and that today could mark the UK''s “independence day”.
A late boost for the Remain camp came from an Ipsos Mori poll, giving it a 52 per cent against 48 per cent for Brexit.
The phone-based survey was completed in the last few days before the referendum and marks the most definitive lead yet for those campaigning for the UK to remain a member of the 28-nation economic bloc.
Poll tracker of ''The Daily Telegraph'' and and a YouGov poll for''The Times'' both showed Remain at 51 per cent and Leave at 49 per cent, reflecting the neck-and-neck nature of the campaign throughout the four-month period since Cameron announced the date of the referendum in February.
