Scottish independence referendum: Scotland votes no - as it happened

David Cameron congratulates Better Together on their victory.

Alistair Darling is the former Labour chancellor who ran Better Together.

Here’s Nicola Sturgeon, Alex Salmond’s deputy, talking to reporters in Glasgow.

The Guardian city editor Jill Treanor reports on the impact of the referendum on the money markets today:

Sterling jumped, reaching a new two year high against the euro in Asian trading hours, as the referendum was called in favour of the no vote. A further rally is now expected when dealing opens officially during London trading while the FTSE 100 was expected to open over 1% higher, which would leave it 60 points off its all time peak.

Howard Archer, chief European & UK Economist at IHS Economics, said: ‘Sterling had a quite sell off in recent weeks. There will be a relief rally.’

He said that the market will now expect the Bank of England to raise interest rates “early next year” and that a yes vote would have delayed expectations for a rise in rates off the low of 0.5% - the level at which they have been set since March 2009.

‘The UK economy, most businesses and the markets will likely all heave a huge sigh of relief that the Scots have rejected independence – and by a slightly larger margin than the recent polls had suggested. There would likely have been serious adverse near-term repercussions for the economy both south of the border and particularly in Scotland from a yes vote,’ said Archer.

The BBC’s Norman Smith has posted this on Twitter.

It is not entirely clear what this means, but, at first sight, it does look as if Number 10 might be having second thoughts about all those further devolution promises.

The BBC are now predicting the final share of the vote at 55% for no, and 45% for yes.

Here’s the yes campaign event.

David Cameron’s decision to press ahead with some version of “English votes for English laws” (see here) presents a challenge to Labour (which has opposed the idea in the past). On Sky News just now, Jim Murphy, the shadow international development secretary and a Scottish MP, presented what may be Labour’s first response.

He said he accepted the need to look at the position of Scottish MPs under devolution. But it was not just Scottish MPs; because of the existence of the London assembly, the position of London MPs would have to be considered too, he said. That was right because London MPs voted on transport, yet transport in London was a matter for the London assembly. AS

A couple of dozen photographers and cameramen have gathered outside the brightly-lit Dynamic Earth building, in the shadow of Holyrood, amid rumours of an imminent appearance by Alex Salmond, reports Josh Halliday.

We can see suited politicos sat inside watching the count on big screens, but security on the doors won’t let any media in. Asked who was inside, the doorman would only say: “It’s SNP.”

Nicola Sturgeon, deputy first minister of Scotland, concedes defeat. Severin Carrell sends these words from her:

‘There isn’t a yes vote tonight. We will be deeply disappointed but I have also been exhilerated by this campaign. I think that there’s two clear messages coming out of it; firstly the people of Scotland have clearly found their voice. Secondly with over one million voting for independence at this stage, there’s a big appetite for change. What we are not seeing, emphatically not, is any kind of endorsement of the status quo.’

Asked if she was conceding defeat, Sturgeon said: ‘I’m not denying the state of the results just now. I’m not trying to spin myself out of the reality of the result. There are still results to declare. We will need to see those results before we get the final tally, but its absolutely clear that there has been demand for change and let’s get that change delivered now.’