Britain has voted to leave the EU

The UK has voted to leave the European Union after 41 years.

The results, which were close throughout the night, finally resulted in 51.9 per cent voting to leave while 48.1 voted to remain in the EU.

The turnout was just over 72 per cent.

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However, bucking the trend across England and Wales, all Scottish local authority areas voted to remain, with Northern Ireland also voting to remain.

In Scotland 62 per cent of voters voted to remain and 38 per cent voted to leave.

However, the strength of the Remain vote varied across Scotland, with nearly three quarters of Edinburgh voters choosing to stay in the EU, but Moray only voting to stay in by a margin of 0.2 per cent.

The First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, said: "Scotland has delivered a strong, unequivocal vote to remain in the EU, and I welcome that endorsement of our European status.”

Sturgeon had previously suggested that if the rest of the UK a voted to leave the EU, it could trigger a second independence referendum.

The financial markets have reacted to the announcement with the pound dropping to its lowest level since 1985, but the Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, said the bank had “put in place extensive contingency plans”.