More on the pens saga from PA, which reports that police were called to a polling station where a woman was handing out pens to fellow voters after a volunteer reported a “disturbance”.
A Sussex Police spokesman said:
Police were called to Durnford Close, Chichester, at around 12.25pm on Thursday 23 June by a volunteer reporting a disturbance outside a polling station.
A PCSO [police community support officer] who was in the area went to the scene and spoke with a woman who was handing out pens.
No offences were committed and it was not being treated as a police matter, the spokesman added.
Meanwhile in the less well-off southern fringe of Hartcliffe, students were more evenly split. Pupils at Bridge Learning Campus in Hartcliffe backed remain.
In the @Bristol_BLC EU referendum students voted to remain by 51% with a turnout of 61% Thanks for taking part!
— BLC World Studies (@BLCWorldStudies) June 23, 2016
Some interesting constituency by constituency figures are coming out of Northern Ireland that show voting is slow in republican areas while unionist districts are recording higher votes.
In North Down - the most affluent constituency in Northern Ireland - polling stations were reporting that 22% of the electorate had voted by lunchtime today. North Down usually records one of the lowest electoral turnouts in Westminster and Stormont Assembly elections.
In sharp contrast, by midday one polling station in the republican heartland of West Belfast was reporting a 7% turnout.
Meanwhile in republican/nationalist-dominated Derry, turnout was about 11.5% by lunchtime in the Foyle constituency.
Overall the Electoral Office in Northern Ireland expects the region-wide turnout to be close to 70%, which would be 15 percentage points higher than last month’s election to the devolved assembly.
South Belfast, regarded as the most liberal constituency in Northern Ireland, was reporting voting turnout of up to 21% in some polling stations by the middle of the day.
A man accompanied by his dog leaves a polling station in Belfast. Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images
Taking a photo inside a polling station is not of itself against the law but section 66 of the Representation of the People Act says:
No person shall communicate at any time to any person any information obtained in a polling station as to the referendum answer for which a voter in that station is about to vote or has voted.
Many social media users have taken photographs, including Henry Smith, Conservative MP for Crawley. Smith tweeted a photograph of his completed ballot paper. The tweet received a mixed reception from other users, with several suggesting he had committed electoral misconduct.
Here is a round-up of the key developments so far today:
At least two polling stations had to be moved and people voting at others had to wade and/or be helped through deep waters, as torrential rain fell on parts of London and the south-east, causing severe travel delays and flooded homes.
A poll of polls by Britain Elects put the likely outcome as 51% for remain and 49% for leave. The final pre-polling day poll, by Ipsos-Mori, gave the Remain camp a four point lead. It is believed to be the first to be published while voting was taking place. All the final phone polls showed remain in the lead, whereas the last four online polls were split with two putting remain ahead and two putting leave in the lead.
The pound hit a new high for the year and shares closed up in a volatile day’s trading, indicating investors are expecting a remain vote. The pound and FTSE100 surged in the morning, fell back in the afternoon and then rallied again later, albeit not reaching the peaks during morning trading.
Vote Leave has been criticised for an email warning that the referendum could be decided by voters in London and Scotland “despite the heartlands of the country voting to leave”. The email also included a a photo of a queue outside a polling station captioned a “leafy London suburb”. Labour MP Chuka Umunna, a member of the official remain campaign, said the message was divisive, describing it as “utterly disgraceful”.
A council has urged voters not to use pens when they cross their EU referendum ballot papers as it could cause them to smudge. East Northamptonshire council issued the warning after a conspiracist meme encouraged pro-Leave voters to take pens to vote so that their pencilled-in crosses could not be tampered with.
Most of the key figures in the campaign, including David Cameron, Michael Gove, Jeremy Corbyn, Nicola Sturgeon and Nigel Farage cast their votes early. As he left a polling station in Islington Corbyn said: “The bookies usually get it right [but] they got it wrong on me big time last year, didn’t they?”
The referendum has been the biggest political betting event in history. Betfair said it took £5m on the result this morning.
What happens after polls close at 10pm?Here’s how we expect the night to play out, from the leave heartlands of the northern counties and the east coast, to the remain cities of London, Edinburgh and Bristol.
Investors have put their money on a vote to remain in Britain’s EU referendum, with the pound hitting a new high for 2016 and the FTSE 100 share index rallying strongly.
As the market exuberance of recent trading sessions continued throughout polling day itself, there were, however, fresh warnings that investors were setting themselves up for heavy losses in the event of a Brexit when the outcome of the referendum becomes clear on Friday.
The pound broke through $1.49 against the dollar for the first time since December before shedding some of those gains in afternoon trading to stand at $1.4799 (still up 0.6% on the day). The FTSE 100 index of leading shares added a solid 1.2%, or 77 points, to close at 6338 - the highest for eight weeks.
Chris Saint, senior analyst at financial firm Hargreaves Lansdown Currency, said:
Clearly the key issue now for currency markets is whether rising expectations that the status quo will prevail are well-placed.
Most of the results from the local counting areas are expected by the early hours of tomorrow morning with the official outcome anticipated by around breakfast time. Dramatic exchange rate swings are to be expected regardless of the result, with a sharp drop in the pound’s value possible in the event of a Brexit.
Shares and the pound were higher from the open and got an extra fillip in morning trading after the publication of an Ipsos Mori poll conducted for the Evening Standard newspaper showed a four-point lead for remain.
“Even though we all know that polls can be rubbish, the markets seem quite happy that the remain camp has done enough to win,” said Kathleen Brooks, research director at spread-betting firm City Index.
Vote Leave accused of belittling Londoners and Scots
It may be polling day but there is no respite from the bitterness between the two opposing campaigns.
Stronger in Europe has hit out at a plea by Vote Leave chief executive Matthew Elliot, sent by email to Brexit supporters, urging them to vote, because:
There is a very real chance that voters in London and Scotland will vote to keep us in the EU today despite the heartlands of the country voting to leave.
The email includes a photo of a queue outside a polling station in a “leafy London suburb”.
Chuka Umunna, Labour MP for Streatham, said:
Vote Leave are ending this campaign as they began it – by seeking to divide our country not unite it, turning regions, nations and communities against one another.
Londoners and Scots have as much right to exercise their democratic choice as anyone else. Implying that our votes are somehow less legitimate than those cast in other parts of Britain is utterly disgraceful.
Pollsters have suggested that the elderly are more likely to vote and more likely to vote “leave”. So the vote by Keith Adams’s mum today may come as little surprise but it was the way she exercised her democratic right that got it trending on Twitter.
Just took 93yr Mum to vote, she's registered blind. In a very loud voice she said, "Which box for out?" A cheer went up from waiting voters
Twitter users all across the country appropriated Adams’ post to tell people what their 93-year-old mums are contributing to the poll station, from the serious to the utterly bizarre:
Just took my 93 year old mum to vote. She's registered blind. She shouted "Expecto Patronum" to banish the Dementors. Everyone cheered.
“Keith” and “93 yr mum” have both trended on Twitter today.
Adams has since written a blog post in response to trolling he received as a result of his post, condemning his critics for their “entire premise...that being brexit invalidates anything else”.
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