Brexit: high turnout in spite of terrible weather

Long queues in the rain lent a quintessentially British air to a historic EU referendum polling day, with many voters forced to navigate flooded streets to determine the nation’s future path.

Downpours hit London and parts of the southeast overnight and early yesterday morning, with some polling stations forced to relocate to drier ground. The rain restarted in the afternoon, with storms forecast throughout the evening. The determined, however, were not deterred.

There were reports of early queues across the UK as once-in-a-generation votes were cast at schools, village halls, church rooms, tearooms, caravans, with a launderette and shipping container among the more unusual makeshift polling stations.

The public library in Birstall, outside which MP Jo Cox was fatally shot and stabbed a week ago, was serving as a polling station and hosted a vigil for the murdered Labour politician.

Floral tributes

The nearby

Batley

Town Hall, its steps still decked in floral tributes, also provided a venue for locals to vote.

As leading campaigners took the last few steps of a bitter and bruising four-month journey, there were no exit polls to buoy or dismay them.

An inscrutable David Cameron swept into the polling station at Methodist Hall, Westminster, with his wife, Samantha. "Good morning," he said to waiting media, ignoring questions on the weather and whether he was feeling confident.

The Ukip leader, Nigel Farage, was in provocative mode. Speaking outside his Kent home, he said he believed the Leave camp had a "very strong chance". "But it's all about turnout and those soft Remainers staying at home," he added, presumably referencing the weather.

Voting ‘brisk’

Voting was brisk in

Northern Ireland

, where unofficially it was said it could be as high as 70 per cent.

In the southeast, some polling stations were forced to close and relocate as the equivalent of one month’s rain fell overnight in the capital.

Glastonbury-goers had been warned in advance by festival founder Michael Eavis to arrange postal or proxy votes as Worthy Farm has no polling station. There was still confusion among some ticket holders, however, over whether they could vote on site. One user tweeted: “My son asked how to vote if you are at a festival.”

"Unfortunately there are no polling stations on site this year," came the reply from the Glastonbury festival account.

The referendum was making the news beyond Britain. In China, the Global Times, published by the Communist Party's People's Daily, warned that Britain could lose its global influence if it left the EU.

Germany's Bild newspaper promised that if Britons voted to stay, not only would Germans not hog sunloungers, they would ban froth on beer and recognise Geoff Hurst's controversial extra-time goal in the 1966 World Cup final.