Brexit: Shropshire reacts to EU vote

Telford & Wrekin voted 63.2 per cent in favour of leaving the European Union, with 56,649 votes for Leave against 32,954 for Remain.

In Shropshire 56.9 per cent supported Brexit. There was also a majority in favour of leaving the EU in Powys, with 53.7 per cent voting out.

It was a dramatic result after a night that started with a prediction of a Remain victory and ended with a remarkable victory for Brexit.

In Wellington, cars bedecked in Leave and Remain posters lined the car park of Telford College of Arts and Technology as counting in Telford & Wrekin began at 11pm.

Inside the building, a high turnout saw election officials counting through to the early hours of the morning, with a total of 89,704 votes cast across the borough.

The turnout was 72.15 per cent, well up on last year's General Election, with 101 spoiled papers.

• More: Live coverage from the local counts

• More: The national picture

• More: Telford votes leave

• More: Shropshire votes leave

• More: Powys votes leave

It was evident from an early stage that the borough would be voting leave, with council leader Councillor Shaun Davies closely predicting the outcome at 60-40 in favour of Leave.

He said: "When we were out canvassing we found that while the rural areas were solidly for Leave, we found that as you got into the towns, the Remain vote was much stronger."

Pro-Brexit Telford MP Lucy Allan also said at the start of the count that she had been expecting the borough to vote strongly in favour of leaving the European Union.

"Certainly, almost everyone I have spoken to in Telford told me they wanted to leave," she said shortly after counting began.

Ms Allan insisted it was important that the Conservative Party united behind David Cameron now that the poll was over.

She was one of the signatories of a letter expressing a desire for Mr Cameron to continue as Prime Minister irrespective of the outcome of the vote.

Ms Allan said their had been fierce argument on both sides of the debate, but it was now up to politicians to respect the wishes of the public whatever the outcome.

She said: "It is a hopeful day. It is a wonderful thing, the people are saying we believe in a better Britain, we do not believe what our political masters say, we believe in a better Britain.

"We were always very clear that in Telford it was a straight leave vote and that has been apparent for a considerable time, what was less clear was how that would play nationally.

"It will be a difficult and uncertain period of time for the immediate short term as has been reflected in the fall of the pound. However, we have to get behind David Cameron. I was one of the MPs who signed the letter of support for his continued premiership to ensure the stability and unite the party going forward with a reshuffle that recognises the achievements of some of the outstanding leave campaigners.

"The leave campaign was fighting against the odds, the establishment, the Prime Minister, the Bank of England, big business, and still the people spoke. And that is why they spoke, because far too many of the political elites did not listen to them. Having given them a referendum we must now listen to what they have said."

There was a nervous anticipation when the result was declared in Telford at 3.11am, with about 50 campaigners from both sides huddled around the stage. There were few displays of emotion from either side, with the Remain supporters mostly reacting to the results with weary smiles of resignation.

Former Labour councillor Bill McClements, who had been a vocal supporter of the Remain camp, said he was not surprised by the result in Telford, but was worried about the future now Britain is set leave the European Union.

He said the vote had already caused the pound to fall by six per cent, meaning that the extra cost of imports would well exceed the cost of EU membership.

He said: "David Cameron will have to resign and we will have a period of instability while we decide who the next prime minister is going to be. The Leave campaign haven't told us what we should do next, whether we should go for tariffs, whether we should carry on with the single market, and whether they would be prepared to accept free movement of labour as part of that.

"I think we need to consider whether the referendum mechanism is the right vehicle for making very technical decision.

"I think the average person thinks themselves an expert on immigration, but they are not experts on financial services. It leads to decisions being made on emotion rather than statistical analysis."

He rejected the idea that voters had been put off by the negative tone of the Remain campaign, particularly the claims from Mr Cameron and George Osborne about the consequences of leaving the EU.

He added: "The people always say that, but I don't think that is the reason, they were told to think that. People say they did not get good information, but people wouldn't take the leaflet of you it if didn't reflect their starting prejudice."

As the night wore on, the strain was etched on the faces of many of the Remain campaigners.

John Stokes, from Admaston, turned up for the count wearing a Britain Stronger in Europe sweatshirt, and was nervously fixed on his mobile phone as the results came in.

He said he had expected the national result to go to the wire, and had criticism of how the campaign had been carried out.

"Everybody said it would be very close nationally, and the result here is roughly what we would have expected," said Mr Stokes. He said he had no problem with the tone of the debate, but said the quality of the statistics left something to be desired."

Ukip councillor Thomas Hoof also said the result was in keeping with his expectations.

"I think the result in Telford speaks for itself, we got our vote out and have won by a margin of nearly 30 per cent."

Over at Shrewsbury, there was something of a feeling of deja vu as the Shropshire count began.

Politicians, council officials, party volunteers, the cast might have been the same as last year's General Election but the stakes were very different as Shropshire's votes on the EU referendum were counted up.

Even the venue was the same as the General Election with Shropshire's ballots ferried from the county's 275 polling stations to Shrewsbury's Sports Village. However, this time there were no party rosettes on display, merely the red and white badges and T-shirts of the remain campaigners, and the red, white and blue rosettes of those wanting Britain to remain in the European Union.

Supporters of both sides were cautious, with an apprehensive mood filling the sports hall, where thousands of ballot papers were piled up on rows upon rows of wooden tables waiting to be counted.

The size of the county meant that some ballot boxes did not arrive at the station until gone midnight, some two hours after the polls closed.

With the verification complete the painstaking process of counting and sorting began, as papers were filed into metal trays marked "remain" and "leave", or "doubtful".

In total 183,324 people out of 236,788 eligible voted, resulting in a 77.42 per cent turnout for the county.

The campaign had opened up divisions and differences across the country, with many voicing considerable concerns about the tone of the debate.

Emma Bullard, co-ordinator of the Green Party in Shrewsbury and North Shropshire, questioned local tactics of leave campaigners, and particularly the controversial 'Brexit boat' at Cressage.

She said: "I am very apprehensive. I think the campaign has been quite scary. Some of the arguments leave have been using, the dreadful boat at Cressage, I just thought that was appalling."

The chairman of Shrewsbury and Atcham Conservative Association, Daniel Morris, had even found himself on the other side of the debate to Daniel Kawczynski, the man selected to represent the group in Parliament.

Speaking as the votes were counted he said that the campaign had shown up a lack of respect for Prime Minister David Cameron from some of the party's MPs.

He said: "I think some people in our party need to have more respect and get behind David Cameron and remember he was the one who got them their jobs in the first place."

Shropshire's neighbours across the West Midlands voted overwhelmingly in favour of quitting the EU, with even cosmopolitan Birmingham opting to leave.

Walsall, Wolverhampton, Sandwell and Dudley all voted for Britain to leave the European Union in huge numbers, while South Staffordshire also voted for Brexit with a record turnout.

The final result, revealed at about 4am, saw Leave gaining 43,248 of the votes (64.8 per cent) in comparison to Remain's 23,444 (35.2 per cent).

Remain had 43,572 votes (32.1 per cent), while Leave got 92,007 (67.9 per cent).

Turnout was also high in neighbouring Stafford, at 77.83 per cent. There, 34,098 voted in favour of staying in the EU (44 per cent), while 43,386 decided they wanted to leave (56 per cent).

Walsall declared its result at 3.40am, with 92,007 (67.9 per cent) in favour of Brexit, while 43,572 votes (32.1 per cent) voted to remain.

In Wolverhampton, 73,798 (62.6 per cent) backed leaving the EU, compared to 44,138 voting Remain (37.4 per cent).

Last to declare was Dudley, which voted to quit by a margin of 118,446 (67.6 per cent), to 56,780 (32.4 per cent) wanting to remain. It was widely expected that the borough, which has a strong Ukip presence, would vote to quit the union.

It was a similar story in Sandwell, which includes West Bromwich, with two thirds – 98,250 voting for Brexit, and a third (49,004) voting to remain.

But perhaps the biggest surprise of the night came in Birmingham, where the leave campaign won by a hair's breadth.

Britain's second city voted 227,251 (50.4 per cent) to leave, while 227,251 (49.6 per cent) to stay.

Mr Kawczynski MP, speaking shortly after arriving, echoed the mood of the evening by hedging his bets on the way the night would go.

He said: "We have regained our sovereignty and accountability to the people.

"I always believed the British people would vote for Brexit but it is a relatively close result and we have to take that on board and ensure that the negotiation process is as smooth as possible.

"The priority now is making sure that we show and demonstrate that there can be a good relationship with Europe. However, I rather suspect this may lead to one or two other countries having their own referendums and for the countries that remain in the EU there will have to be changes for them.

"It is a very clear indication to Brussels that the way they have been running the EU has been failing."

"I do not see this as a threat to the stability of the UK. I do not think there is an appetite for another referendum in Scotland."

Pro-Brexit North Shropshire MP Owen Paterson said he was "very proud" of the result.

He said: "The British people have set an example to the world that we can be free and run our own show.

"Personally we want stability and the position I have taken is he was elected and if we voted to remain it was his job to deliver remain, and if we voted to leave it was his job to deliver leave.

"We now need to begin, this morning, delivering the will of the people. There are MPs who are out of kilter with their electorate and the will of the people will have to be respected."

Ukip members in Shropshire were today gathering to celebrate the result.

Shropshire's Ukip MEP Jill Seymour said: "This is a momentous day for Britain, and I'm so proud that people had the courage to vote for change, and the determination to take back control.

"The hard work now starts. We need to roll up our sleeves and work on a cross-party basis to begin the task of repatriating decision-making powers from Brussels.

"The result sends a clear message to the powers at Westminster that people have become completely disenfranchised with their politics, and that the politicians have become completely detached from the issues which really concern the working man and woman.

"I have always believed that Britain is big enough and strong enough to stand on its own two feet, and to truly thrive when freed from the shackles of EU bureaucracy. Now we have the opportunity to prove it.

"June 23 will go down in history as our Independence Day – and for me, it's very emotional."

For pro EU campaigners it was a morning of intense disappointment.

Remain campaigner, Ludlow MP Philip Dunne, said he was "surprised" by the vote and predicted "profound changes".