UK edging closer to Brexit, results show

LONDON (AA) – Britain appeared to be on course for exiting the European Union after the pro-Brexit campaign moved ahead with half the results counted on a referendum.

The Leave campaign had gathered 51.4 percent against Remain’s 48.6 percent, with around half-a-million votes separating the two sides.

British commercial broadcaster ITV News predicted the results indicated there was now an 80 percent probability of a vote to leave the EU.

It was a trajectory that sent the pound sterling plummeting against the dollar in overnight trading. By 4 a.m. local time (0300GMT), the pound was worth $1.37, down from more than $1.50 just five hours earlier.

Sky News said the exchange rate had reached its lowest level since September 1985.

Nigel Farage, leader of the anti-EU U.K. Independence Party, hailed the result as Britain’s “independence day”.

It is “a victory for real people, for ordinary people, for decent people,” he said in a televised speech as dawn broke across London.

“I now dare to dream that the dawn is coming up on an independent United Kingdom,” he added.

International Development secretary Justine Greening, who campaigned for a Remain vote, refused to concede the referendum in a BBC interview, saying it was too close to call.